Devices, systems and methods for validating and upgrading firmware in intelligent electronic devices

ABSTRACT

Apparatuses, systems, and method for validating and upgrading firmware in an intelligent electronic device (IED) are provided. In one aspect of the present disclosure, an IED is provided including at least one processor and at least one memory. The at least one memory includes at least a first firmware and a second firmware, where the second firmware is a version of the first firmware. The at least one processor determines if there is an error associated with the first firmware. If the processor determines there is no error associated with the first firmware, the processor executes first firmware. If the processor determines there is an error associated with the at least one firmware, the processor executes the second firmware.

PRIORITY

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/289,440, filed Feb. 1, 2016, entitled “DEVICES, SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR VALIDATING AND UPGRADING FIRMWARE IN INTELLIGENT ELECTRONIC DEVICES”, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Field

The present disclosure relates generally to intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) and, in particular, to devices, systems and methods for validating and upgrading firmware in intelligent electronic devices.

Description of the Related Art

Monitoring of electrical energy by consumers and providers of electric power is a fundamental function within any electric power distribution system. Electrical energy may be monitored for purposes of usage, equipment performance and power quality. Electrical parameters that may be monitored include volts, amps, watts, vars, power factor, harmonics, kilowatt hours, kilovar hours and any other power related measurement parameters. Typically, measurement of the voltage and current at a location within the electric power distribution system may be used to determine the electrical parameters for electrical energy flowing through that location.

Devices that perform monitoring of electrical energy may be electromechanical devices, such as, for example, a residential billing meter or may be an intelligent electronic device (“IED”). Intelligent electronic devices typically include some form of a processor. In general, the processor is capable of using the measured voltage and current to derive the measurement parameters. The processor operates based on a software configuration. A typical consumer or supplier of electrical energy may have many intelligent electronic devices installed and operating throughout their operations. IEDs may be positioned along the supplier's distribution path or within a customer's internal distribution system. IEDs include revenue electric watt-hour meters, protection relays, programmable logic controllers, remote terminal units, fault recorders and other devices used to monitor and/or control electrical power distribution and consumption. IEDs are widely available that make use of memory and microprocessors to provide increased versatility and additional functionality. Such functionality includes the ability to communicate with remote computing systems, either via a direct connection, e.g., a modem, a wireless connection or a network IEDs also include legacy mechanical or electromechanical devices that have been retrofitted with appropriate hardware and/or software allowing integration with the power management system.

Typically, an IED is associated with a particular load or set of loads that are drawing electrical power from the power distribution system. The IED may also be capable of receiving data from or controlling its associated load. Depending on the type of IED and the type of load it may be associated with, the IED implements a power management function that is able to respond to a power management command and/or generate power management data. Power management functions include measuring power consumption, controlling power distribution such as a relay function, monitoring power quality, measuring power parameters such as phasor components, voltage or current, controlling power generation facilities, computing revenue, controlling electrical power flow and load shedding, or combinations thereof.

Conventional IEDs include the ability to communicate with remote computing systems. Traditionally, IEDs would transfer data using serial based download commands. These commands would be accessed via an RS232, and RS485 or an Ethernet port encapsulating the serial request with an Ethernet message using any Ethernet protocol such as HTTP or TCP/IP. For instance, host software or a “master” would make a request for a set of data from one or more memory registers in an IED slave. At that point, the IED slave would then communicate the data stored in the memory registers back to the host software utilizing a serial transfer. A need exists for systems and methods for efficiently collecting data from various devices, e.g., IEDs. A further need exists for systems and methods for analyzing and reporting such collected data.

SUMMARY

In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), systems, network topologies and methods thereof may be employed to implement an enterprise-wide energy management reporting, analysis and billing system. The system and method of the present disclosure imports historical log energy usage data from meters, IEDs and other sources and generates detailed and useful energy reports for analyzing energy use, planning and load curtailment. In one embodiment, the system operates on a client/server architecture (although other architectures may be employed), where a server/settings editor imports data from various sources enabling at least one client to access the data and generate reports therefrom. The system and method enables multiple users to generate customized energy reports to study energy usage and demand enterprise-wide. For example, a user may be enabled to display Peak Energy Usage for the day, week, and month, or compare usage between meters, locations, and customers. The system's automated billing module allows a user to generate sub-metering bills based on customized rate structures for energy and other commodities such as water and gas.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, an intelligent electronic device is provided. The intelligent electronic device includes at least one sensor configured to measure at least one parameter of an electrical distribution system and output a signal indicative of the measured at least one parameter; at least one analog-to-digital converter configured to receive the output signals and convert the output signal to a digital signal; and at least one processing device configured to execute a plurality on instructions to implement a general purpose operating system for executing at least two applications, each application configured to implement a predetermined functionality based on the at least one parameter of the electrical distribution system, wherein each of the applications is independent of the other application.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an intelligent electronic device includes at least one sensor configured to measure at least one parameter of an electrical distribution system and output a signal indicative of the measured at least one parameter; at least one analog-to-digital converter configured to receive the output signals and convert the output signal to a digital signal; at least one processing device configured to execute a plurality on instructions to determine energy parameters of the electrical distribution system based on the measured at least one parameter; a communication device configured to couple the intelligent electronic device to a network; and a network discovery module configured to detect communication settings of the network.

In one aspect, the network discovery module is configured to operate on a UPnP protocol.

In another aspect, the network discovery module is configured to broadcast service advertisement message over the network.

According to a further aspect of the present disclosure, an intelligent electronic device validates firmware disposed in a memory of the intelligent electronic device (IED). In one embodiment of the present disclosure, an IED is configured such that the firmware of the IED can be updated while the IED is still running. The IED may be configured to simultaneously store one or more previously installed versions of a firmware and a newer version of a firmware. Furthermore, the IED is configured to revert to previous versions of the firmware after a newer version of the firmware is installed on the IED if the IED determines there is an error associated with the newest version of the firmware, i.e., after a validation or sanity check. Additionally, the IED is configured to allow a user to downgrade the firmware on the IED manually.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an IED is provided including: at least one sensor coupled to an electrical distribution system, the at least one sensor configured to measure at least one parameter of the electrical distribution system and generate at least one analog signal indicative of the at least one parameter; at least one analog-to-digital converter configured to receive the at least one analog signal and convert the at least one analog signal to at least one digital signal; at least one memory configured to store at least a first firmware and a second firmware, the second firmware being a version of the first firmware; and at least one processor configured to receive the at least one digital signal and calculate at least one power parameter of the electrical distribution system, the at least one processor further configured to determine if there is an error associated with the first firmware, wherein if the at least one processor determines there is no error associated with the first firmware, the at least one processor is configured to execute the first firmware and if the at least one processor determines there is an error with the first firmware, the at least one processor is configured to execute the second firmware.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein if the at least one processor determines that there is an error with the at least a first firmware, the at least one processor generates an error message.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein if the at least one processor determines that there is an error with the at least a first firmware, the at least one processor generates an error message.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes a display, wherein the at least one processor is configured to output the error message to the display.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes a communication interface configured to communicate with at least one other device, wherein the at least one processor is configured to provide the error message to the at least one other device via the communication interface.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein the error message is at least one of an email and a short messaging service text message.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein the second firmware is a previous version of the first firmware.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein the second firmware the same version as the first firmware.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine if there is an error associated with the first firmware by performing a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) on the first firmware to obtain a first CRC value and comparing the first value with a saved CRC value stored in the at least one memory, wherein if the first CRC value matches the saved CRC value, the at least one processor is configured to determine that there is no error associated with the first firmware and if the first CRC value does not match the saved CRC value, the at least one processor is configured to determine that there is an error associated with the first firmware.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein, if there is an error associated with the first firmware, the at least one processor is further configured to determine if there is an error associated with the second firmware and to execute the second firmware if there is no error associated with the second firmware.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes a communication interface configured to communicate with at least one remote computing device, wherein if the at least one processor determines there is an error associated with the second firmware, the at least one processor is configured to send a request to the at least one remote computing device via the communication interface to download a desired version of the first firmware from the at least one remote computing device.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein the communication interface is configured to receive a communication from the at least one remote computing device including the desired version of the first firmware requested by the at least one processor and the at least one processor is configured to execute the version of the first firmware received in the communication.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine if there is an error associated with the first firmware during a boot up mode of the IED.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein if the at least one processor determines the error associated with the first firmware is a temporary error, the at least one processor is configured to reboot the IED

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein the at least one processor further includes a flash memory and the at least one processor is configured to flash the second firmware to the flash memory if the at least one processor determines there is an error associated with the first firmware.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, and IED is provided including: at least one sensor coupled to an electrical distribution system, the at least one sensor configured to measure at least one parameter of the electrical distribution system and generate at least one analog signal indicative of the at least one parameter; at least one analog-to-digital converter configured to receive the at least one analog signal and convert the at least one analog signal to at least one digital signal; at least one memory configured to store at least a first firmware; at least one communication interface configured to communicate with at least one remote computing device, the at least one communication interface receiving a communication from the at least one remote computing device including at least a second firmware, wherein the second firmware is a version of the first firmware and the second firmware is saved in the at least one memory; and at least one processor configured to receive the at least one digital signal and calculate at least one power parameter of the electrical distribution system, the at least one processor further configured to determine if there is an error associated with the first firmware, wherein if the at least one processor determines there is no error associated with the first firmware, the at least one processor is configured to execute the first firmware and if the at least one processor determines there is an error associated with the first firmware, the at least one processor is configured to execute the second firmware.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein the communication from the remote computing device is received in response to a request from the at least one processor for the second firmware.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein the at least one communication from the remote computing device is received by the at least one processor without a request from the at least one processor requesting the second firmware.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein the at least one communication interface is configured to communicate with the at least one remote computing device using serial communication.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein the at least one communication interface is configured to communicate with the at least one remote computing device wirelessly.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein the at least one communication is encrypted and the at least one processor is configured to decrypt the at least one communication.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED further includes wherein the at least one communication further includes a digital signature and the at least one processor is configured to decrypt the digital signature to obtain a first value, execute a hash function on the second firmware to obtain a second value, and compare the first value and the second value to determine the authenticity of the second firmware.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, an IED is provided including: at least one sensor coupled to an electrical distribution system, the at least one sensor configured to measure at least one parameter of the electrical distribution system and generate at least one analog signal indicative of the at least one parameter; at least one analog-to-digital converter configured to receive the at least one analog signal and convert the at least one analog signal to at least one digital signal; at least one memory configured to store at least a first version and a second version of a firmware, the first version of the firmware including at least one different feature than the features included in the second version of the firmware; at least one communication interface configured to communicate with at least one remote computing device, the at least one communication interface receiving a communication from the remote computing device including a command to downgrade from the first version of the firmware to the second version of the firmware; and at least one processor configured to receive the at least one digital signal and calculate at least one power parameter of the electrical distribution system, the at least one processor further configured to receive the communication and downgrade from the first version of the firmware to the second version of the firmware in response to the command.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will be apparent from a consideration of the following Detailed Description considered in conjunction with the drawing Figures, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an intelligent electronic device, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 2A-2H illustrate exemplary form factors for an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates an environment in which the present disclosure may be utilized.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a web server power quality and revenue meter, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of the processor of the web server power quality and revenue meter system shown in FIG. 4, according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates another environment in which the present disclosure may be utilized.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a method for communicating data from an intelligent electronic device on an internal network to a server on an external network through a firewall.

FIG. 8 illustrates yet another environment in which the present disclosure may be utilized.

FIG. 9 illustrates a further environment in which the present disclosure may be utilized.

FIG. 10 is a system architecture of an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of present disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of present disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a common data interface of an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of present disclosure;

FIG. 13A illustrates use of a configuration file or map in conjunction with the common data interface shown in FIG. 12 in accordance with an embodiment of present disclosure;

FIG. 13B illustrates a method for buffering data in an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 14 illustrates a plurality of application modules of an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of present disclosure;

FIG. 15A illustrates a network discovery feature of an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of present disclosure;

FIG. 15B illustrates a network discovery feature of an intelligent electronic device in accordance with another embodiment of present disclosure;

FIG. 16 illustrates a replication feature of an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of present disclosure;

FIG. 17 is a method for replicating data/setting of an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of present disclosure;

FIG. 18 illustrates a logging or storage feature of an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of present disclosure;

FIG. 19 is a flow chart illustrating a method for combining data of an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of present disclosure;

FIG. 20 illustrates combining records of a data table of an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of present disclosure;

FIG. 21A illustrates a file structure on a remote update server in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 21B illustrates a file structure on an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 22 is a flowchart of an exemplary method of a package install in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 23A is a flowchart of an exemplary method for testing the sanity of the run firmware of an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 23B is a flowchart of an exemplary method for checking the run flash of an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 24 is a flowchart of an exemplary run loop of an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 25 is a flowchart of an exemplary method for processing the byte reception for Modbus ASCII and Modbus RTU protocols in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 26 is a flowchart of an exemplary method for processing the byte transmission for Modbus ASCII and Modbus RTU protocols in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 27 is a flowchart of an exemplary method for preforming a request in an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 28 is a flowchart of an exemplary method for executing a run command in an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 29 is a flowchart of an exemplary method for executing a received command in an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 30 is a flowchart of an exemplary method for executing a pending command in an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 31 is a flowchart of an exemplary method for initializing communication ports of an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 32 is a flowchart of an exemplary method for initializing an interrupt service routine of an intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 33 is a block diagram of an exemplary intelligent electronic device in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described herein below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, well-known functions or constructions are not described in detail to avoid obscuring the present disclosure in unnecessary detail. The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any configuration or design described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other configurations or designs. Herein, the phrase “coupled” is defined to mean directly connected to or indirectly connected with through one or more intermediate components. Such intermediate components may include both hardware and software based components.

It is further noted that, unless indicated otherwise, all functions described herein may be performed in either hardware or software, or some combination thereof. In one embodiment, however, the functions are performed by at least one processor, such as a computer or an electronic data processor, digital signal processor or embedded micro-controller, in accordance with code, such as computer program code, software, and/or integrated circuits that are coded to perform such functions, unless indicated otherwise.

It should be appreciated that the present disclosure can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, a system, a device, a method, or a computer readable medium such as a computer readable storage medium or a computer network where program instructions are sent over optical or electronic communication links.

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described herein below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As used herein, intelligent electronic devices (“IEDs”) sense electrical parameters and compute data and can be any device including, but not limited to, Programmable Logic Controllers (“PLC's”), Remote Terminal Units (“RTU's”), electric power meters, panel meters, protective relays, fault recorders, phase measurement units, serial switches, smart input/output devices and other devices which are coupled with power distribution networks to manage and control the distribution and consumption of electrical power. A meter is a device that records and measures power events, power quality, current, voltage waveforms, harmonics, transients and other power disturbances. Revenue accurate meters (“revenue meter”) relate to revenue accuracy electrical power metering devices with the ability to detect, monitor, report, quantify and communicate power quality information about the power that they are metering.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an intelligent electronic device (IED) 10 for monitoring and determining power usage and power quality for any metered point within a power distribution system and for providing a data transfer system for faster and more accurate processing of revenue and waveform analysis.

The IED 10 of FIG. 1 includes a plurality of sensors 12 coupled to various phases A, B, C and neutral N of an electrical distribution system 11, a plurality of analog-to-digital (A/D) converters 14, including inputs coupled to the sensor 12 outputs, a power supply 16, a volatile memory 18, a non-volatile memory 20, a multimedia user interface 22, and a processing system that includes at least one central processing unit (CPU) 50 (or host processor) and one or more digital signal processors, two of which are shown, i.e., DSP1 60 and DSP2 70. The IED 10 also includes a Field Programmable Gate Array 80 which performs a number of functions, including, but not limited to, acting as a communications gateway for routing data between the various processors 50, 60, 70, receiving data from the A/D converters 14 performing transient detection and capture and performing memory decoding for CPU 50 and the DSP processor 60. In one embodiment, the FPGA 80 is internally comprised of two dual port memories to facilitate the various functions. In some embodiments, IED 10 further includes watchdog component 17, boot flash 51, and run flash 53, where boot flash 51 and run flash 53 may be included in CPU 50. Watchdog 17, boot flash 51, and run flash 53 are each described in greater detail below. It is to be appreciated that the various components shown in FIG. 1 are contained within housing 90. Exemplary housings will be described below in relation to FIGS. 2A-2H.

The plurality of sensors 12 sense electrical parameters, e.g., voltage and current, on incoming lines, (i.e., phase A, phase B, phase C, neutral N), from an electrical power distribution system 11 e.g., an electrical circuit. In one embodiment, the sensors 12 will include current transformers and potential transformers, wherein one current transformer and one voltage transformer will be coupled to each phase of the incoming power lines. A primary winding of each transformer will be coupled to the incoming power lines and a secondary winding of each transformer will output a voltage representative of the sensed voltage and current. The output of each transformer will be coupled to the A/D converters 14 configured to convert the analog output voltage from the transformer to a digital signal that can be processed by the CPU 50, DSP1 60, DSP2 70, FPGA 80 or any combination thereof.

A/D converters 14 are respectively configured to convert an analog voltage output to a digital signal that is transmitted to a gate array, such as Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) 80. The digital signal is then transmitted from the FPGA 80 to the CPU 50 and/or one or more DSP processors 60, 70 to be processed in a manner to be described below.

The CPU 50 or DSP Processors 60, 70 are configured to operatively receive digital signals from the A/D converters 14 (see FIG. 1) to perform calculations necessary to determine power usage and to control the overall operations of the IED 10. In some embodiments, CPU 50, DSP1 60 and DSP2 70 may be combined into a single processor, serving the functions of each component. In some embodiments, it is contemplated to use an Erasable Programmable Logic Device (EPLD) or a Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD) or any other programmable logic device in place of the FPGA 80. In some embodiments, the digital samples, which are output from the A/D converters 14, are sent directly to the CPU 50 or DSP processors 60, 70, effectively bypassing the FPGA 80 as a communications gateway.

The power supply 16 provides power to each component of the IED 10. In one embodiment, the power supply 16 is a transformer with its primary windings coupled to the incoming power distribution lines and having windings to provide a nominal voltage, e.g., 5 VDC, +12 VDC and −12 VDC, at its secondary windings. In other embodiments, power may be supplied from an independent power source to the power supply 16. For example, power may be supplied from a different electrical circuit or an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).

In one embodiment, the power supply 16 can be a switch mode power supply in which the primary AC signal will be converted to a form of DC signal and then switched at high frequency, such as, for example, 100 Khz, and then brought through a transformer to step the primary voltage down to, for example, 5 Volts AC. A rectifier and a regulating circuit would then be used to regulate the voltage and provide a stable DC low voltage output. Other embodiments, such as, but not limited to, linear power supplies or capacitor dividing power supplies are also contemplated.

The multimedia user interface 22 is shown coupled to the CPU 50 in FIG. 1 for interacting with a user and for communicating events, such as alarms and instructions to the user. The multimedia user interface 22 may include a display for providing visual indications to the user. The display may be embodied as a touch screen, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plurality of LED number segments, individual light bulbs or any combination. The display may provide information to the user in the form of alpha-numeric lines, computer-generated graphics, videos, animations, etc. The multimedia user interface 22 further includes a speaker or audible output means for audibly producing instructions, alarms, data, etc. The speaker is coupled to the CPU 50 via a digital-to-analog converter (D/A) for converting digital audio files stored in a memory 18 or non-volatile memory 20 to analog signals playable by the speaker. An exemplary interface is disclosed and described in commonly owned pending U.S. application Ser. No. 11/589,381, entitled “POWER METER HAVING AUDIBLE AND VISUAL INTERFACE”, which claims priority to expired U.S. Provisional Patent Appl. No. 60/731,006, filed Oct. 28, 2005, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

The IED 10 will support various file types including but not limited to Microsoft Windows Media Video files (.wmv), Microsoft Photo Story files (.asf), Microsoft Windows Media Audio files (.wma), MP3 audio files (.mp3), JPEG image files (.jpg, .jpeg, .jpe, .jfif), MPEG movie files (.mpeg, .mpg, .mpe, .m1v, .mp2v .mpeg2), Microsoft Recorded TV Show files (.dvr-ms), Microsoft Windows Video files (.avi) and Microsoft Windows Audio files (.wav).

The IED 10 further comprises a volatile memory 18 and a non-volatile memory 20. In addition to storing audio and/or video files, volatile memory 18 will store the sensed and generated data for further processing and for retrieval when called upon to be displayed at the IED 10 or from a remote location. The volatile memory 18 includes internal storage memory, e.g., random access memory (RAM), and the non-volatile memory 20 includes removable memory such as magnetic storage memory; optical storage memory, e.g., the various types of CD and DVD media; solid-state storage memory, e.g., a CompactFlash card, a Memory Stick, SmartMedia card, MultiMediaCard (MMC), SD (Secure Digital) memory; or any other memory storage that exists currently or will exist in the future. By utilizing removable memory, an IED can be easily upgraded as needed. Such memory will be used for storing historical trends, waveform captures, event logs including time-stamps and stored digital samples for later downloading to a client application, web-server or PC application.

In a further embodiment, the IED 10 will include a communication device 24, also known as a network interface, for enabling communications between the IED or meter, and a remote terminal unit, programmable logic controller and other computing devices, microprocessors, a desktop computer, laptop computer, other meter modules, etc. The communication device 24 may be a modem, network interface card (NIC), wireless transceiver, etc. The communication device 24 will perform its functionality by hardwired and/or wireless connectivity. The hardwire connection may include but is not limited to hard wire cabling e.g., parallel or serial cables, RS232, RS485, USB cable, Firewire (1394 connectivity) cables, Ethernet, and the appropriate communication port configuration. The wireless connection will operate under any of the various wireless protocols including but not limited to Bluetooth™ interconnectivity, infrared connectivity, radio transmission connectivity including computer digital signal broadcasting and reception commonly referred to as Wi-Fi or 802.11.X (where x denotes the type of transmission), satellite transmission or any other type of communication protocols, communication architecture or systems currently existing or to be developed for wirelessly transmitting data including spread spectrum 900 MHz, or other frequencies, Zigbee, WiFi, or any mesh enabled wireless communication.

The IED 10 may communicate to a server or other computing device via the communication device 24. The IED 10 may be connected to a communications network, e.g., the Internet, by any means, for example, a hardwired or wireless connection, such as dial-up, hardwired, cable, DSL, satellite, cellular, PCS, wireless transmission (e.g., 802.11a/b/g), etc. It is to be appreciated that the network may be a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), the Internet or any network that couples a plurality of computers to enable various modes of communication via network messages. Furthermore, the server will communicate using various protocols such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), etc. and secure protocols such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), Internet Protocol Security Protocol (IPSec), Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Protocol, etc. The server will further include a storage medium for storing a database of instructional videos, operating manuals, etc., the details of which will be described in detail below.

In an additional embodiment, the IED 10 will also have the capability of not only digitizing waveforms, but storing the waveform and transferring that data upstream to a central computer, e.g., a remote server, when an event occurs such as a voltage surge or sag or a current short circuit. This data will be triggered and captured on an event, stored to memory, e.g., non-volatile RAM, and additionally transferred to a host computer within the existing communication infrastructure either immediately in response to a request from a remote device or computer to receive said data in response to a polled request. The digitized waveform will also allow the CPU 50 to compute other electrical parameters such as harmonics, magnitudes, symmetrical components and phasor analysis. Using the harmonics, the IED 10 will also calculate dangerous heating conditions and can provide harmonic transformer derating based on harmonics found in the current waveform.

In a further embodiment, the IED 10 will execute an e-mail client and will send emails to the utility or to the customer direct on an occasion that a power quality event occurs. This allows utility companies to dispatch crews to repair the condition. The data generated by the meters are used to diagnose the cause of the condition. The data is transferred through the infrastructure created by the electrical power distribution system. The email client will utilize a POP3 or other standard mail protocol. A user will program the outgoing mail server and email address into the meter. An exemplary embodiment of said metering is available in U.S. Pat. No. 6,751,563, which all contents thereof are incorporated by reference herein.

The techniques of the present disclosure can be used to automatically maintain program data and provide field wide updates upon which IED firmware and/or software can be upgraded. An event command can be issued by a user, on a schedule or by digital communication that will trigger the IED 10 to access a remote server and obtain the new program code. This will ensure that program data will also be maintained allowing the user to be assured that all information is displayed identically on all units.

It is to be understood that the present disclosure may be implemented in various forms of hardware, software, firmware, special purpose processors, or a combination thereof. The IED 10 also includes an operating system and micro instruction code. The various processes and functions described herein may either be part of the micro instruction code or part of an application program (or a combination thereof) which is executed via the operating system.

It is to be further understood that because some of the constituent system components and method steps depicted in the accompanying figures may be implemented in software, or firmware, the actual connections between the system components (or the process steps) may differ depending upon the manner in which the present disclosure is programmed. Given the teachings of the present disclosure provided herein, one of ordinary skill in the related art will be able to contemplate these and similar implementations or configurations of the present disclosure.

Furthermore, it is to be appreciated that the components and devices of the IED 10 of FIG. 1 may be disposed in various housings depending on the application or environment. For example, the IED 10 may be configured as a panel meter 900 as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B. The panel meter 900 of FIGS. 2A and 2B is described in more detail in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,271,996, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. As seen in FIGS. 2A and 2B, the IED 900 includes a housing 902 defining a front surface 902 a, a rear surface 902 b, a top surface 902 c, a bottom surface 902 d, a right side surface 902 e, and a left side surface (not shown). Electrical device 900 includes a face plate 904 operatively connected to front surface 902 a of housing 902. Face plate 904 includes displays 906, indicators 908 (e.g., LEDs and the like), buttons 910, and the like providing a user with an interface for visualization and operation of electrical device 100. For example, as seen in FIG. 2A, face plate 904 of electrical device 900 includes analog and/or digital displays 906 capable of producing alphanumeric characters. Face plate 904 includes a plurality of indicators 908 which, when illuminated, indicate to the user the “type of reading”, the “% of load bar”, the “parameter designation” which indicates the reading which is being displayed on displays 906, a “scale selector” (e.g., Kilo or Mega multiplier of Displayed Readings), etc. Face plate 904 includes a plurality of buttons 910 (e.g., a “menu” button, an “enter” button, a “down” button, a “right” button, etc.) for performing a plurality of functions, including but not limited to: viewing of meter information; entering display modes; configuring parameters; performing re-sets; performing LED checks; changing settings; viewing parameter values; scrolling parameter values; and viewing limit states. The housing 902 includes voltage connections or inputs 912 provided on rear surface 902 b thereof, and current inputs 914 provided along right side surface 902 e thereof. The IED 900 may include a first interface or communication port 916 for connection to a master and/or slave device. Desirably, first communication port 916 is situated in rear surface 902 b of housing 902. IED 900 may also include a second interface or communication port 918 situated on face plate 904.

In other embodiment, the IED 10 may be configured as a socket meter 920, also known as a S-base type meter or type S meter, as shown in FIG. 2C an 2D. The socket meter 920 of FIGS. 2C and 2D is described in more detail in commonly owned application Ser. No. 12/578,062 (U.S. Publication No. 2010/0090680), the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. Referring to FIGS. 2C and 2D, the meter 920 includes a main housing 922 surrounded by a cover 924. The cover 924 is preferably made of a clear material to expose a display 926 disposed on the main body 922. An interface 928 to access the display and a communication port 930 is also provided and accessible through the cover 924. The meter 920 further includes a plurality of current terminals 932 and voltage terminals 934 disposed on backside of the meter extending through a base 935. The terminals 932, 934 are designed to mate with matching jaws of a detachable meter-mounting device, such as a revenue meter socket. The socket is hard wired to the electrical circuit and is not meant to be removed. To install an S-base meter, the utility need only plug in the meter into the socket. Once installed, a socket-sealing ring 936 is used as a seal between the meter 920 and/or cover 924 and the meter socket to prevent removal of the meter and to indicate tampering with the meter.

In a further embodiment, the IED 10 of FIG. 1 may be disposed in a switchboard or draw-out type housing 940 as shown in FIGS. 2E and 2F, where FIG. 2E is a front view and FIG. 2F is a rear view. The switchboard enclosure 942 usually features a cover 944 with a transparent face 946 to allow the meter display 948 to be read and the user interface 950 to be interacted with by the user. The cover 944 also has a sealing mechanism (not shown) to prevent unauthorized access to the meter. A rear surface 952 of the switchboard enclosure 942 provides connections for voltage and current inputs 954 and for various communication interfaces 956. Although not shown, the meter disposed in the switchboard enclosure 942 may be mounted on a draw-out chassis which is removable from the switchboard enclosure 942. The draw-out chassis interconnects the meter electronics with the electrical circuit. The draw-out chassis contains electrical connections which mate with matching connectors 954, 956 disposed on the rear surface 952 of the enclosure 942 when the chassis is slid into place.

In yet another embodiment, the IED 10 of FIG. 1 may be disposed in an A-base or type A housing as shown in FIGS. 2G and 2H. A-base meters 960 feature bottom connected terminals 962 on the bottom side of the meter housing 964. These terminals 962 are typically screw terminals for receiving the conductors of the electric circuit (not shown). A-base meters 960 further include a meter cover 966, meter body 968, a display 970 and input/output means 972. Further, the meter cover 966 includes an input/output interface 974. The cover 966 encloses the meter electronics 968 and the display 970. The cover 966 has a sealing mechanism (not shown) which prevents unauthorized tampering with the meter electronics.

It is to be appreciated that other housings and mounting schemes, e.g., circuit breaker mounted, are contemplated to be within the scope of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary environment 100 in which the present disclosure may be practiced. The network 120 may be the Internet, a public or private intranet, an extranet, wide area network (WAN), local area network (LAN) or any other network configuration to enable transfer of data and commands. An example network configuration uses the Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (“TCP/IP”) network protocol suite; however, other Internet Protocol based networks are contemplated by the present disclosure. Communications may also include IP tunneling protocols such as those that allow virtual private networks coupling multiple intranets or extranets together via the Internet. The network 120 may support existing or envisioned application protocols, such as, for example, telnet, POP3, Mime, HTTP, HTTPS, PPP, TCP/IP, SMTP, proprietary protocols, or any other network protocols. During operation, the IED 110 may communicate using the network 120 as will be hereinafter discussed.

It is to be appreciated that there are at least two basic types of networks, based on the communication patterns between the machines: client/server networks and peer-to-peer networks. On a client/server network, every computer, device or IED has a distinct role: that of either a client or a server. A server is designed to share its resources among the client computers on the network. A dedicated server computer often has faster processors, more memory, and more storage space than a client because it might have to service dozens or even hundreds of users at the same time. High-performance servers typically use from two to eight processors (which does not include multi-core CPUs), have many gigabytes of memory installed, and have one or more server-optimized network interface cards (NICs), RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Drives) storage consisting of multiple drives, and redundant power supplies. Servers often run a special network OS—such as Windows Server, Linux, or UNIX—that is designed solely to facilitate the sharing of its resources. These resources can reside on a single server or on a group of servers. When more than one server is used, each server can “specialize” in a particular task (file server, print server, fax server, email server, and so on) or provide redundancy (duplicate servers) in case of server failure. For demanding computing tasks, several servers can act as a single unit through the use of parallel processing. A client device typically communicates only with servers, not with other clients. A client system is a standard PC that is running an OS such as Windows. Current operating systems contain client software that enables the client computers to access the resources that servers share. Older operating systems, such as Windows 3.x and DOS, required add-on network client software to join a network. By contrast, on a peer-to-peer network, every computer or device is equal and can communicate with any other computer or device on the network to which it has been granted access rights. Essentially, every computer or device on a peer-to-peer network can function as both a server and a client; any computer or device on a peer-to-peer network is considered a server if it shares a printer, a folder, a drive, or some other resource with the rest of the network. Note that the actual networking hardware (interface cards, cables, and so on) is the same in both client/server networks and peer-to-peer networks. Only the logical organization, management, and control of the networks vary.

The PC client 102 may comprise any computing device, such as a server, mainframe, workstation, personal computer, hand held computer, laptop telephony device, network appliance, other IED, Programmable Logic Controller, Power Meter, Protective Relay etc. The PC client 102 includes system memory 104, which may be implemented in volatile and/or non-volatile devices. One or more client applications 106, which may execute in the system memory 104, are provided. Such client applications may include, for example, FTP client applications. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is an application for transfer of files between computers attached to Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks, including the Internet. FTP is a “client/server” application, such that a user runs a program on one computer system, the “client”, which communicates with a program running on another computer system, the “server”. Additionally, user interfaces 108 may be included for displaying system configuration, retrieved data and diagnostics associated with the IED 110.

The intelligent electronic device (IED) 110, in one embodiment, is comprised of at least an FTP Server 131 including a Virtual Command File Processor 133, a File System and Driver 135, a non-volatile memory 137 and a virtual data store 139. Of course, the IED 110 may contain other hardware/software for performing functions associated with the IED; however, many of these functions have been described above with respect to FIG. 1 and will therefore not be further discussed.

IED 110 runs the FTP Server 131 as an independent process in the operating system, allowing it to function independently of the other running processes. Additionally, it allows for multiple connections, using the port/socket architecture of TCP/IP.

By running the FTP Server 131 as an independent process, this means that other systems, such as a Modbus TCP handler, can run on IED 110 concurrently with the FTP Server 131. This also means that multiple FTP connections can be made with the only limitation being the system's available resources.

The FTP Server 131 provides access to the file system 135 of the IED 110 on the standard FTP port (port 21). When a connection is made, PC client 102 sends an FTP logon sequence, which includes a USER command and a PASS command. The PC client 102 then interacts with the IED 110, requesting information and writing files, ending in a logout.

The FTP Server 131 uses two ports for all actions. The first port 21, is a clear ASCII telnet channel, and is called the command channel. The second port, which can have a different port number in different applications, is initiated whenever it is necessary to transfer data in clear binary, and is called the data channel.

The virtual data store 139 is an ideal storage medium for files that are written to very frequently, such as, for example, status information, diagnostics, and virtual command files. In contrast to these types of files are files which require more long term storage, such as, for example, logs, settings, and configurations, more suitably stored using a compact flash drive.

The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) (Port 21) is a network protocol used to transfer data from one computer to another through a network, such as over the Internet. FTP is a commonly used protocol for exchanging files over any TCP/IP based network to manipulate files on another computer on that network regardless of which operating systems are involved (if the computers permit FTP access). There are many existing FTP client and server programs. FTP servers can be set up anywhere between game servers, voice servers, internet hosts, and other physical servers.

FTP runs exclusively over TCP. FTP servers by default listen on port 21 for incoming connections from FTP clients. A connection to this port from the FTP Client forms the control stream on which commands are passed to the FTP server from the FTP client and on occasion from the FTP server to the FTP client. FTP uses out-of-band control, which means it uses a separate connection for control and data. Thus, for the actual file transfer to take place, a different connection is required which is called the data stream. Depending on the transfer mode, the process of setting up the data stream is different.

In active mode, the FTP client opens a dynamic port (for example, 49152-65535), sends the FTP server the dynamic port number on which it is listening over the control stream and waits for a connection from the FTP server. When the FTP server initiates the data connection to the FTP client it binds the source port to port 20 on the FTP server.

To use active mode, the client sends a PORT command, with the IP and port as argument. The format for the IP and port is “h1,h2,h3,h4,p1,p2”. Each field is a decimal representation of 8 bits of the host IP, followed by the chosen data port. For example, a client with an IP of 192.168.0.1, listening on port 49154 for the data connection will send the command “PORT 192,168,0,1,192,2”. The port fields should be interpreted as p1×256+p2=port, or, in this example, 192×256+2=49154.

In passive mode, the FTP server opens a dynamic port (49152-65535), sends the FTP client the server's IP address to connect to and the port on which it is listening (a 16 bit value broken into a high and low byte, like explained before) over the control stream and waits for a connection from the FTP client. In this case the FTP client binds the source port of the connection to a dynamic port between 49152 and 65535.

To use passive mode, the client sends the PASV command to which the server would reply with something similar to “227 Entering Passive Mode (127,0,0,1,192,52)”. The syntax of the IP address and port are the same as for the argument to the PORT command.

In extended passive mode, the FTP server operates exactly the same as passive mode, except that it only transmits the port number (not broken into high and low bytes) and the client is to assume that it connects to the same IP address that it was originally connected to.

The objectives of FTP are to promote sharing of files (computer programs and/or data), to encourage indirect or implicit use of remote computers, to shield a user from variations in file storage systems among different hosts and to transfer data reliably, and efficiently.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the IED 110 has the ability to provide an external PC client 102 with an improved data transfer rate when making data download requests of data stored within an IED This is achieved by configuring the IED 110 to include an FTP server 131 including a Virtual Command File Processor 133. An improved data transfer rate from the IED 110 may be realized by the external PC client 102 issuing virtual commands to the IED 110. In response, the IED 110 processes the received virtual commands in the Virtual Command File processor 133 to construct FTP commands therefrom to be applied to a novel file system 135 of the IED 110, coupled to the FTP server 131, wherein the novel file system 135 is configured as a PC file structure amenable to receiving and responding to the constructed FTP commands. The Virtual command files and the novel file system 135 are discussed in greater detail in co-pending application Ser. No. 12/061,979.

While FTP file transfer comprises one embodiment for encapsulating files to improve a data transfer rate from an IED to external PC clients, the present disclosure contemplates the use of other file transfer protocols, such as the Ethernet protocol such as HTTP or TCP/IP for example. Of course, other Ethernet protocols are contemplated for use by the present disclosure. For example, for the purpose of security and firewall access, it may be preferable to utilize HTTP file encapsulation as opposed to sending the data via FTP. In other embodiments, data can be attached as an email and sent via SMTP, for example. Such a system is described in a co-owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,751,563, titled “Electronic Energy meter”, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. In the U.S. Pat. No. 6,751,563, at least one processor of the IED or meter is configured to collect the at least one parameter and generate data from the sampled at least one parameter, wherein the at least one processor is configured to act as a server for the IED or meter and is further configured for presenting the collected and generated data in the form of web pages.

With reference to U.S. Pat. No. 6,751,563, FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a web server power quality and revenue meter 210. The meter is connected to monitor electric distribution power lines (not shown), to monitor voltage and current at the point of connection. Included therein is digital sampler 220 for digitally sampling the voltage and current of the power being supplied to a customer or monitored at the point of the series connection in the power grid. Digital sampler 220 digitally samples the voltage and current and performs substantially similarly to the A/D converters 14 described above in relation to FIG. 1. The digital samples are then forwarded to processor 230 for processing. It is to be appreciated that the processor 230 may be a single processing unit or a processing assembly including at least one CPU 50, DSP1 60, DSP2 70 and FPGA 80, or any combination thereof. Also connected to processor 230 is external device interface 240 for providing an interface for external devices 250 to connect to meter 210. These external devices might include other power meters, sub-station control circuitry, on/off switches, etc. Processor 230 receives data packets from digital sampler 220 and external devices 250, and processes the data packets according to user defined or predefined requirements. A memory 260 is connected to processor 230 for storing data packets and program algorithms, and to assist in processing functions of processor 230. These processing functions include the power quality data and revenue calculations, as well as formatting data into different protocols which will be described later in detail. Processor 230 provides processed data to network 280 through network interface 270. Network 280 can be the Internet, the World Wide Web (WWW), an intranet, a wide area network (WAN), or local area network (LAN), among others. In one embodiment, the network interface converts the data to an Ethernet TCP/IP format. The use of the Ethernet TCP/IP format allows multiple users to access the power meter 210 simultaneously. In a like fashion, network interface 270 might be comprised of a modem, cable connection, or other devices that provide formatting functions. Computers 290-292 are shown connected to network 280.

A web server program (web server) is contained in memory 260, and accessed through network interface 270. The web server 210 provides real time data through any known web server interface format. For example, popular web server interface formats consist of HTML and XML formats. The actual format of the programming language used is not essential to the present disclosure, in that any web server format can be incorporated herein. The web server provides a user friendly interface for the user to interact with the meter 210. The user can have various access levels to enter limits for e-mail alarms. Additionally, the user can be provided the data in multiple formats including raw data, bar graph, charts, etc. The currently used HTML or XML programming languages provide for easy programming and user friendly user interfaces.

The processor 230 formats the processed data into various network protocols and formats. The protocols and formats can, for example, consist of the web server HTML or XML formats, Modbus TCP, RS-485, FTP or e-mail. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) can also be used to assign IP addresses. The network formatted data may then be available to users at computers 290-292 through network 280, which connects to meter 210 at the network interface 270. In one embodiment, network interface 270 is an Ethernet interface that supports, for example, 100 base-T or 10 base-T communications. This type of network interface can send and receive data packets between WAN connections and/or LAN connections and the meter 210. This type of network interface allows for situations, for example, where the web server 210 may be accessed by one user while another user is communicating via the Modbus TCP, and a third user may be downloading a stored data file via FTP. The ability to provide access to the meter by multiple users, simultaneously, is a great advantage over the prior art. This can allow for a utility company's customer service personnel, a customer and maintenance personnel to simultaneously and interactively monitor and diagnose possible problems with the power service.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of processor 230 of the web server power quality and revenue meter system according to some embodiments of the present invention. Processor 230 is shown containing four main processing functions. The functions shown are illustrative and not meant to be inclusive of all possible functions performed by processor 230. Power Quality and Revenue Metering functions (metering functions) 310 consist of a complete set of functions which are needed for power quality and revenue metering. Packet data collected by digital sampler 220 is transmitted to processor 230. Processor 230 calculates, for example, power reactive power, apparent power, and power factor. The metering function 310 responds to commands via the network or other interfaces supported by the meter. External Device Routing Functions 330 handle the interfacing between the external device 250 and meter 210. Raw data from external device 250 is fed into meter 210. The external device 250 is assigned a particular address. If more than one external device is connected to meter 210, each device will be assigned a unique particular address. The Network Protocol Functions 350 of meter 210 are executed by processor 230 which executes multiple networking tasks that are running concurrently. As shown in FIG. 5, these include, but are not limited to, the following network tasks included in network protocol functions 350: e-mail 360, web server 370, Modbus TCP 380, FTP 390, and DHCP 300. The e-mail 360 network protocol function can be utilized to send e-mail messages via the network 280 to a user to, for example, notify the user of an emergency situation or if the power consumption reaches a user-set or pre-set high level threshold. As the processor receives packets of data it identifies the network processing necessary for the packet by the port number associated with the packet. The processor 230 allocates the packet to a task as a function of the port number. Since each task is running independently, the meter 210 can accept different types of requests concurrently and process them transparently from each other. For example, the web server may be accessed by one user while another user is communicating via Modbus TCP and at the same time a third user may download a log file via FTP. The Network to Meter Protocol Conversion Functions 340 are used to format and protocol convert the different network protocol messages to a common format understood by the other functional sections of meter 210. After the basic network processing of the packet of data, any “commands” or data which are to be passed to other functional sections of meter 210 are formatted and protocol converted to a common format for processing by the Network to Meter Protocol Conversion Functions 340. Similarly, commands or data coming from the meter for transfer over the network are pre-processed by this function into the proper format before being sent to the appropriate network task for transmission over the network. In addition, this function first protocol converts and then routes data and commands between the meter and external devices.

Although the above described embodiments enable users outside of the network the IED or meter is residing on to access the internal memory or server of the IED or meter, IT departments commonly block this access through a firewall to avoid access by dangerous threats into corporate networks. A firewall is a system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network, e.g., an internal network of a building, a corporate network, etc. Firewalls can be implemented in both hardware and software, or a combination of both. Firewalls are frequently used to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the Internet, especially intranets. All messages entering or leaving the intranet pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria. A firewall may employ one or more of the following techniques to control the flow of traffic in and of the network it is protecting: 1) packet filtering: looks at each packet entering or leaving the network and accepts or rejects it based on user-defined rules; 2) Application gateway: applies security mechanisms to specific applications, such as FTP and Telnet servers; 3) Circuit-level gateway: applies security mechanisms when a TCP or UDP connection is established; once the connection has been made, packets can flow between the hosts without further checking; 4) Proxy server: intercepts all messages entering and leaving the network, effectively hides the true network addresses; and 5) Stateful inspection: does not examine the contents of each packet but instead compares certain key parts of the packet to a database of trusted information; if the comparison yields a reasonable match, the information is allowed through; otherwise it is discarded. Other techniques and to be developed techniques are contemplated to be within the scope of the present disclosure.

In one embodiment, the present disclosure provides for overcoming the problem of not being allowed firewall access to an IED or meter installed within a facility, i.e., the meter is residing on a private network, by enabling an IED to initiate one way communication through the firewall. In this embodiment, the IED or meter posts the monitored and generated data on an Internet site external to the corporate or private network, i.e., on the other side of a firewall. The benefit is that any user would be able to view the data on any computer or web enabled smart device without having to pierce or bypass the firewall. Additionally, there is a business opportunity to host this data on a web server and charge a user a monthly fee for hosting the data. The features of this embodiment can be incorporated into any telemetry application including vending, energy metering, telephone systems, medical devices and any application that requires remotely collecting data and posting it on to a public Internet web site.

In one embodiment, the IED or metering device will communicate through the firewall using a protocol such as HTTP via a port that is open through the firewall. Referring to FIG. 6, IEDs or meters 410, 412 414 reside on an internal network 416, e.g., an intranet, private network, corporate network, etc. The internal network 416 is coupled to an external network 422, e.g., the Internet, via a router 420 or similar device over any known hardwire, fiber optic or wireless connection 421. A firewall 418 is disposed between the internal network 416 and external network 422 to prevent unauthorized access from outside the internal network 416 to the IEDs or meters 410, 412, 414. Although the firewall 418 is shown between the internal network 416 and the router 420 it is to be appreciated that other configurations are possible, for example, the firewall 418 being disposed between the router 420 and external network 422. In other embodiments, the firewall 418 and router 420 may be configured as a single device. It is further to be appreciated that firewall 418 can be implemented in both hardware and software, or a combination of both.

The communication device or network interface of the meter (as described above in relation to FIG. 1) will communicate through the firewall 418 and read a web site server 424. It is to be appreciated that the one way communication from the IED through the firewall may be enabled by various techniques, for example, by enabling outbound traffic to the IP address or domain name of the server 424 or by using a protocol that has been configured, via the firewall settings, to pass through the firewall such as HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol), IP (Internet Protocol), TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), UDP (User Datagram Protocol), ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol), SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol), SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), Telnet, etc. Alternatively, the IED may have exclusive access to a particular port on the firewall, which is unknown to other users on either the internal or external network. Other methods or techniques are contemplated, for example, e-mail, HTTP tunneling, SNTP trap, MSN, messenger, IRQ, Twitter™, Bulletin Board System (BBS), forums, Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP) broadcast, UDP unicast, Virtual Private Networks (VPN), etc.

The server 424 will provide instructions in computer and/or human readable format to the IED or meter. For instance, the web server 424 might have XML tags that state in computer readable format to provide data for the last hour on energy consumption by 15 minute intervals. The meter 410, 412, 414 will then read those instructions on that web server 424 and then post that data up on the server 424. In this manner, the IED or meter initiates communication in one direction, e.g., an outbound direction, to the server 424.

Another server (or possibly the same server) will read the data that the meter 410, 412, 414 posts and will format the meter data into data that can be viewed for humans on a web site or a software application, i.e., UI Server 426. Servers 424, 426 can also store the data in a database or perform or execute various control commands on the data. Clients 428 may access the IED data stored or posted on servers 424, 426 via a connection to the network 422.

Since the meters are only communicating in an outbound direction only, the meters 410, 412, 414 can read data or instructions from an external network application (e.g., server 424), but the external network application cannot request information directly from the meter. The server 424 posts the data or instructions on the web site and waits for the meter to check the site to see if there has been a new post, i.e., new instructions for the meter. The meter can be programmed at the user's discretion as to frequency for which the meter 410, 412, 414 exits out to the external network to view the postings.

The meter instruction server 424 will post instructions in a directory programmed/located on the server or into XML or in any fashion that the meter is configured to understand and then the meter will post whatever data it is instructed to do. The meter can also be configured to accomplish control commands. In addition to the meter instruction server 424, a user interface (UI) server 426 is provided that can be used to enable a user interface to the user. The user can provide input on the UI server 426 that might trigger the meter instruction server 424 to produce a message to control the energy next time the meter reads that server.

Referring to FIG. 7, a method for communicating data from an IED on an internal network to a server on an external network through a firewall is illustrated. In step 452, the IED 410 communicates through the firewall 418 to a predetermined server 424 on an external network 422. The IED 410 may be programmed to periodically communicate to the server at predefined intervals. During this communication session, the IED 410 reads instructions disposed in a directory or folder on the predetermined server 424, step 454. Next, in step 456, the IED 410 collects data from its internal memory or generates data based on the read instructions. The IED 410 then transmits the data to the server 424 in a predetermined format, e.g., extensible markup language (XML), comma-separated value (CSV), etc., step 458. In step 460, the predetermined server 424 posts the received data on a web site accessible from the external network 422. The data may be posted on the server 424 or a UI (user interface) server 426 configured to provide data for end users, e.g., clients 428. It is to be appreciated that the UI server 426 may be configured to post data from several locations in one convenient interface for, for example, an organization managing the several locations. A provider of the servers 424, 426 may charge a fee to the end user for the hosting of the web site and providing the data in a convenient and accessible format.

In another embodiment, the IED or metering device will communicate through the firewall using a server 530 disposed on an internal network protected by a firewall. Referring to FIG. 8, IEDs or meters 510, 512, 514 reside on an internal network 516, e.g., an intranet, private network, corporate network, etc. The internal network 516 is coupled to an external network 522, e.g., the Internet, via a router 520 or similar device over any known hardwire or wireless connection 521. A firewall 518 is disposed between the internal network 516 and external network 522 to prevent unauthorized access from outside the internal network 516 to the IEDs or meters 510, 512, 514. Although the firewall 518 is shown between the internal network 516 and the router 520 it is to be appreciated that other configurations are possible, for example, the firewall 518 being disposed between the router 520 and external network 522. In other embodiments, the firewall 518 and router 520 may be configured as a single device. It is further to be appreciated that firewall 518 can be implemented in both hardware and software, or a combination of both.

In this embodiment, server 530 aggregates data from the various IEDs 510, 512, 514 coupled to the internal or private network 516. Since the server 530 and the IEDs 510, 512, 514 are all on the same side of the firewall 518, generally communications and data transfers among the server 530 and the IEDs 510, 512, 514 is unrestricted. Server 530 then communicates or transfers the data from the IEDs to server 524 on the external network on the other side of the firewall 518. The communication between servers 530 and 524 may be accomplished by any one of the communication means or protocols described in the present disclosure. The server 524 then posts the data from the IEDs 510, 512, 514 making the data accessible to clients 528 on external networks, as described above.

In a further embodiment, the IED or metering device will communicate through the firewall using a server 630 disposed on an internal network protected by a firewall. Referring to FIG. 9, IEDs or meters 610, 612, 614 reside on an internal network 616, e.g., an intranet, private network, corporate network, etc. The internal network 616 is coupled to an external network 622, e.g., the Internet, via a router 620 or similar device over any known hardwire or wireless connection 621. A firewall 618 is disposed between the internal network 516 and external network 622 to prevent unauthorized access from outside the internal network 616 to the IEDs or meters 610, 612, 614. Although the firewall 618 is shown between the internal network 616 and the router 620 it is to be appreciated that other configurations are possible, for example, the firewall 618 being disposed between the router 620 and external network 622. In other embodiments, the firewall 618 and router 620 may be configured as a single device. It is further to be appreciated that firewall 618 can be implemented in both hardware and software, or a combination of both.

In this embodiment, server 630 aggregates data from the various IEDs 610, 612, 614 coupled to the internal or private network 616. Since the server 630 and the IEDs 610, 612, 614 are all on the same side of the firewall 618, generally communications and data transfers among the server 630 and the IEDs 610, 612, 614 is unrestricted. Server 630 then communicates or transfers the data from the IEDs to clients 628 on the external network on the other side of the firewall 618. The communication between server 630 and clients 628 may be accomplished by any one of the communication means or protocols described in the present disclosure.

In another embodiment, each IED 610, 612, 614 may be configured to act as a server to perform the functionality described above obviating the need for server 630.

Furthermore in another embodiment, each IED 610, 612, 614 and each client device 628 may be configured as a server to create a peer-to-peer network, token ring or a combination of any such topology.

The systems and methods of the present disclosure may utilize one or more protocols and/or communication techniques including, but not limited to, e-mail, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), HTTP tunneling, SNTP trap, MSN, messenger, IRQ, Twitter™, Bulletin Board System (BBS), forums, Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP) broadcast, UDP unicast, Virtual Private Networks (VPN), etc.

In one non-limiting embodiment, each IED sends data to a recipient via electronic mail, also known as email or e-mail. An Internet email message consists of three components, the message envelope, the message header, and the message body. The message header contains control information, including, minimally, an originator's email address and one or more recipient addresses. Usually descriptive information is also added, such as a subject header field and a message submission date/time stamp. Network-based email was initially exchanged on the ARPANET in extensions to the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), but is now carried by the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), first published as Internet standard 10 (RFC 821) in 1982. In the process of transporting email messages between systems, SMTP communicates delivery parameters using a message envelope separate from the message (header and body) itself. Messages are exchanged between hosts using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol with software programs called mail transfer agents (MTAs); and delivered to a mail store by programs called mail delivery agents (MDAs, also sometimes called local delivery agents, LDAs). Users can retrieve their messages from servers using standard protocols such as POP or IMAP, or, as is more likely in a large corporate environment, with a proprietary protocol specific to Novell Groupwise, Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange Servers. Webmail interfaces allow users to access their mail with any standard web browser, from any computer, rather than relying on an email client. Programs used by users for retrieving, reading, and managing email are called mail user agents (MUAs). Mail can be stored on the client, on the server side, or in both places. Standard formats for mailboxes include Maildir and mbox. Several prominent email clients use their own proprietary format and require conversion software to transfer email between them. Server-side storage is often in a proprietary format but since access is through a standard protocol such as IMAP, moving email from one server to another can be done with any MUA supporting the protocol.

In one embodiment, the IED composes a message using a mail user agent (MUA). The IED enters the email address of a recipient and sends the message. The MUA formats the message in email format and uses the Submission Protocol (a profile of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), see RFC 6409) to send the message to the local mail submission agent (MSA), for example, run by the IED's internet service provider (ISP). The MSA looks at the destination address provided in the SMTP protocol (not from the message header). An Internet email address is a string of the form “recipient@meter.” The part before the “@” symbol is the local part of the address, often the username of the recipient, and the part after the “@” symbol is a domain name or a fully qualified domain name. The MSA resolves a domain name to determine the fully qualified domain name of the mail exchange server in the Domain Name System (DNS). The DNS server for the domain responds with any MX records listing the mail exchange servers for that domain, for example, a message transfer agent (MTA) server run by the recipient's ISP. The MSA sends the message to MTA using SMTP. This server may need to forward the message to other MTAs before the message reaches the final message delivery agent (MDA). The MDA delivers it to the mailbox of the recipient. The recipient retrieves the message using either the Post Office Protocol (POP3) or the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP4).

Other types of e-mail systems may also be employed, for example, web-based email, POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) email services, IMAP (Internet Message Protocol) e-mail servers, and MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface) email servers to name a few.

In a further embodiment, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) may be employed. Techniques for transferring data from an IED to a device is described in commonly owned pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/061,979, the contents of which are incorporated by reference.

In one embodiment, IEDs employ Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) protocol, which is a set of networking protocols that permits networked devices to discover each other's presence, and notify clients of services available on these devices. UPnP takes the form of UDP broadcast messages, which are sent across a local network, to notify other devices of available services, and http requests to query the details of those devices and services.

In one embodiment, UPnP is employed to allow the network addresses of devices, such as meters, to automatically be discovered by a client. This enables the client software to display a list of all devices which are available. In addition, this could also allow the client software to enable the user to connect to these devices, without having to configure the network address of that device. In addition, the UPnP notify may be used to indicate the health status of the device, including starting up, running, errors in configuration, and resetting.

In another embodiment, UPnP is employed to allow devices, such as meters, to notify the clients of what services they support, such as Modbus, dnp, web, ftp, log download, and data streaming. This could be extended by including information particular to that service or protocol, such as to allow the client to interface with that service with no user input. This could enable the client software to display the device such that the user can focus on the details of the device, rather then worrying about the minutiae of connection information.

In another embodiment, an automated server is configured to perform actions related to these automatically discovered services, such as retrieving real time information, downloading logs, or registering for notification of events. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, a server 530 could be on a network 516 to collect log information from meters 510, 512, 514, and whenever a meter broadcast that it provided log data, the server 530 could automatically collect that data from the meter. As another example, the server 530 could automatically poll and log the real-time readings of all meters on the network, automatically including them as they become available on the network. As described above, the server 530 may then post the data to server 524. Furthermore, the server 530 may automatically download new firmware, retrieve files and change or modify programmable settings in the meters 510, 512, 514.

In one embodiment, HTTP tunneling is employed to send a message (including the IED's or meter's data) to a server, which listens for such messages, and parses out the IED's or meter's data. This could be performed by embedding the meter's data in a HTTP message, which could be sent to the server, for example, server 424 as shown in FIG. 6. The HTTP wrapper would allow this data to pass through firewalls which only allow web traffic. For example, in the architecture of FIG. 6, IED 410 may send a HTTP message containing measured or calculated data through firewall 418 to server 424 or server 430. In another example as shown in FIG. 8, server 530 may collect data from the various IEDs 510, 512, 514 and forward the collected data in a HTTP message through firewall 518 to server 524.

It is to be appreciated that HTTP tunneling applies to system architectures where a server is provided as the receiver of the IED or meter data, as the clients would be unable to process such information. Referring to FIG. 9, server 630 is the destination (and collects) the messages generated from the various IEDs 610, 612, 614, but device 628 is a client, and without server software, would be unable to receive the messages. However, by programming device 628 with server software, the client device 628 becomes a server and can receive the messages.

It is further to be appreciated that the HTTP message can be sent based on various triggers including, but not limited to, time-based trigger, event-based trigger, storage capacity based trigger, etc.

In another embodiment, the IEDs can communicate through to devices using a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) trap. SNMP traps enable an agent, e.g., an agent running on an IED, to notify a management station, e.g., a server, of significant events by way of an unsolicited SNMP message. Upon occurrence of an event, an agent that sends an unsolicited or asynchronous trap to the network management system (NMS), also known as a manager. After the manager receives the event, the manager displays it and can choose to take an action based on the event. For instance, the manager can poll the agent or IED directly, or poll other associated device agents to get a better understanding of the event. For the management system to understand a trap sent to it by an agent, the management system must know what the object identifier (OID) of the trap or message defines. Therefore, the management system or server must have the Management Information Base (MIB) for that trap loaded. This provides the correct OID information so that the network management system can understand the traps sent to it. Additionally, a device does not send a trap to a network management system unless it is configured to do so. A device must know that it should send a trap. The trap destination is usually defined by an IP address, but can be a host name, if the device is set up to query a Domain Name System (DNS) server.

Common chat protocols, such as MSN, AIM, IRQ, IRC, and Skype, could be used to send a message, containing the meter's data, to a public chat server, e.g., server 440, 540, 640, which could then route that message to any desired client. Another possible implementation could be to have a special client that listens for these messages, parses the data contents, and presents them as another manner. In one embodiment, the messages are proprietary format Ethernet messages, typically sent over TCP. It is to be appreciated that the actual format depends on the specific chat protocol.

A public social server that supports a common web interface for posting information, such as Twitter™, Facebook™, BBS's, could be used to post a status, containing the meter's data, to a user on the public social server for that service, e.g., server 440, 540, 640. This post could then be viewed by the clients to see the meter's data, or read by another server for further parsing and presentation. The data could be formatted as human readable text (e.g., “The voltage is 120.2v”), as machine parsable text (e.g., “voltage.an=120.2”), hex representing binary data (e.g., “0152BF5E”). The HTTP interface could be used, which would work the same way as users updating it from their browser (HTTP push). Some of these servers also provide a proprietary format Ethernet message, typically sent over TCP.

In one non-limiting example, a public social server such as the system employed by Facebook may be utilized to post the IEDs data so the data is accessible on the external network outside of the firewall. Facebook uses a variety of services, tools and programming languages to make up its infrastructure which may be employed in the systems and methods of the present disclosure to implement the technique described herein. In the front end, the servers run a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) stack with Memcache. Linux is a Unix-like operating system kernel. It is open source, highly customizable, and good for security. Facebook's server runs the Linux operating system Apache HTTP server. For the database, Facebook uses MySQL for its speed and reliability. MySQL is used primarily as a key store of value when the data are randomly distributed among a large number of cases logical. These logical instances extend across physical nodes and load balancing is done at physical node. Facebook uses PHP, since it is a good web programming language and is good for rapid iteration. PHP is a dynamically typed language/interpreter. Memcache is a caching system that is used to accelerate dynamic web sites with databases (like Facebook) by caching data and objects in RAM to reduce reading time. Memcache is the main form of caching on Facebook and helps relieve the burden of database. Having a caching system allows Facebook to be as fast as it is to remember information. Furthermore, Facebook backend services are written in a variety of different programming languages like C++, Java, Python, and Erlang. Additionally, it employs the following services: 1.) Thrift—a lightweight remote procedure call framework for scalable cross-language services development, which supports C++, PHP, Python, Perl, Java, Ruby, Erlang, and others; 2.) Escribano (server logs)—a server for aggregating log data streamed in real time on many other servers, it is a scalable framework useful for recording a wide range of data; 3.) Cassandra (database)—a database designed to handle large amounts of data spread out across many servers; 4.) HipHop for PHP—a transformer of source code for PHP script code and was created to save server resources, HipHop transforms PHP source code in C++ optimized, among others. It is to be appreciated that any of the above systems, devices and/or services may be implemented in the various architectures disclosed in the present disclosure to achieve the teaching and techniques described herein.

A public web site, e.g., hosting on server 440, 540, 640, which allows the posting of information, such as a Forum, could be used to post a message, containing the meter's data, to a group, thread, or other location. This post would take place by a HTTP POST to the web site's server, where by the server would store that information, and present it on the web site. This message could then be viewed by the clients to see the meter's data, or read by another server for further parsing and presentation. The data could be formatted as human readable text (e.g., “The voltage is 120.2v”), as machine parsable text (e.g., “voltage.an=120.2”), hex representing binary data (e.g., “0152BF5E”). The HTTP interface could be used, which would work the same way as users updating it from their browser (HTTP push).

User Datagram Protocol (UDP) messages could be used to send a message from the IEDs or meters to a server, which listens for such messages, and parses out the meter's data. When employing UDP broadcasts, messages could be sent from the IEDs or meters to a server, e.g., servers 530, 630, since UDP broadcasts do not work across networks. The messages containing the IED's or meter's data can then be sent to external networks via any of the described (or to be developed) communication methods. Alternatively, a UDP unicast could support sending to any server, e.g., server 424, 524.

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) could be created such that each meter on the internal network is part of the same virtual private network as each of the clients. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a technology for using the Internet or another intermediate network to connect computers to isolated remote computer networks that would otherwise be inaccessible. A VPN provides security so that traffic sent through the VPN connection stays isolated from other computers on the intermediate network. VPNs can connect individual IEDs or meters to a remote network or connect multiple networks together. Through VPNs, users are able to access resources on remote networks, such as files, printers, databases, or internal websites. VPN remote users get the impression of being directly connected to the central network via a point-to-point link. Any of the other described (or to be developed) protocols could then be used to push data to another server or clients on the VPN.

Hosted data services, such as a hosted database, cloud data storage, Drop-Box, or web service hosting, could be used as an external server to store the meter's data. Hosted data services can be referred to as Hosting. Each of these Hosts, e.g., servers 440, 540, 640, could then be accessed by the clients to query the Hosted Data. Many of these hosted data services support HTTP Push messages to upload the data, or direct SQL messages. As many web service and cloud hosts allow their users to use their own software, a hosted data service could be further extended by placing proprietary software on them, thus allowing them to act as the external meter server for any of the previously mentioned methods (e.g., servers 424, 524).

In another embodiment, the IEDs can communicate to devices using Generic Object Oriented Substation Event (GOOSE) messages, as defined by the IEC-61850 standard, the content of which are herein incorporated by reference. A GOOSE message is a user-defined set of data that is “published” on detection of a change in any of the contained data items sensed or calculated by the IED. Any IED or device on the LAN or network that is interested in the published data can “subscribe” to the publisher's GOOSE message and subsequently use any of the data items in the message as desired. As such, GOOSE is known as a Publish-Subscribe message. With binary values, change detect is a False-to-True or True-to-False transition. With analog measurements, IEC61850 defines a “deadband” whereby if the analog value changes greater than the deadband value, a GOOSE message with the changed analog value is sent. In situation where changes of state are infrequent, a “keep alive” message is periodically sent by the publisher to detect a potential failure. In the keep-alive message, there is a data item that indicates “The NEXT GOOSE will be sent in XX Seconds” (where XX is a user definable time). If the subscriber fails to receive a message in the specified time frame, it can set an alarm to indicate either a failure of the publisher or the communication network.

The GOOSE message obtains high-performance by creating a mapping of the transmitted information directly onto an Ethernet data frame. There is no Internet Protocol (IP) address and no Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). For delivery of the GOOSE message, an Ethernet address known as a Multicast address is used. A Multicast address is normally delivered to all devices on a Local Area Network (LAN). Many times, the message is only meant for a few devices and doesn't need to be delivered to all devices on the LAN. To minimize Ethernet traffic, the concept of a “Virtual” LAN or VLAN is employed. To meet the reliability criteria of the IEC-61850, the GOOSE protocol automatically repeats messages several times without being asked. As such, if the first GOOSE message gets lost (corrupted), there is a very high probability that the next message or the next or the next will be properly received.

It is to be appreciated that the above-described one-way communication embodiments may apply to systems other than for energy metering. For example, the present disclosure may be applied to a vending machine or system, wherein the vending machine located in a building or structure having a private or corporate network. The vending machine will include, among other data collecting components, at least a communication device or network interface as described above. The communication device or network interface will coupled the vending machine to the internal network which may be further coupled to the Internet via a firewall. The vending machine may vend or dispense a plurality of items, such as soda cans, candy bars, etc., similar to the vending machine described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,178,055, the contents of which are incorporated by reference. In accordance with the present disclosure, the vending machine will monitor and collect data related to the items sold. Such data may include quantities of items sold, a re-stock limit that has been reached, total revenue generated by the vending machine, etc. In one embodiment, the vending machine will post to a web site, residing on a server outside of the internal network such as the Internet, quantities of specific items sold by the vending machine that are required to fill the vending machine. In this manner, an operator that maintains the vending machine can check the web site before going to the location of the vending machine and know exactly how many items are required to fill the vending machine before going to the location to refill the vending machine.

In another embodiment, the teachings of the present disclosure may be applied to a medical device, for example, a medical monitoring device configured to be worn on a patient. In this embodiment, the medical monitoring device will include at least a communication device or network interface as described above and monitor a certain parameter relating to a patient, e.g., a heartbeat. In one embodiment, the at least a communication device or network interface operates on a wireless connection and coupled the medical monitoring device to internal network (e.g., a home network) which may be further coupled to the Internet via a firewall, e.g., a router provided by the Internet Service Provider. At predetermined intervals, the medical monitoring device will communicate to and post the monitored data on a remote website. A user such as a doctor may then view the data of the patient by accessing the web site and not directly connecting to the medical monitoring device.

Other embodiments may include security systems such as fire alarm systems, security alarm systems, etc., which need to report data. Also envisioned are manufacturing sensing equipment, traffic sensing equipment, scientific instrumentation or other types of reporting instrumentation.

Based on the sensitivity of the data being communicated and posted through the firewall to various external networks, various data security techniques are employed by the IEDs (e.g., meters, vending machines, medical monitoring device, etc.) contemplated by the present disclosure, some of which are described below.

The original FTP specification is an inherently insecure method of transferring files because there is no method specified for transferring data in an encrypted fashion. This means that under most network configurations, user names, passwords, FTP commands and transferred files can be “sniffed” or viewed by anyone on the same network using a packet sniffer. This is a problem common to many Internet protocol specifications written prior to the creation of SSL such as HTTP, SMTP and Telnet. The common solution to this problem is to use simple password protection or simple encryption schemes, or more sophisticated approaches using either SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol), or FTPS (FTP over SSL), which adds SSL or TLS encryption to FTP as specified in RFC 4217. The inventors have contemplated the use of each of these schemes in the IEDs described above.

In one embodiment, the FTP server 131 in the IED 110 shown in FIG. 3 uses a set of username and passwords which are programmed through Modbus. These username and passwords can only be programmed when a user performs a logon with administrative rights. Each programmed user account can be given differing permissions, which grant or restrict access to different roles within the file system. Each role controls read and write access to specific files and directories within the file system through FTP. These roles can be combined to customize the access a specific user is given. When passwords are disabled by the user, a default user account is used, with full permissions, and a username and password of “anonymous”.

Password protection schemes are measured in terms of their password strength which may be defined as the amount of resiliency a password provides against password attacks. Password strength can be measured in bits of entropy. Password strength is an important component of an overall security posture, but as with any component of security, it is not sufficient in itself. Strong passwords can still be exploited by insider attacks, phishing, keystroke login, social engineering, dumpster diving, or systems with vulnerabilities that allow attackers in without passwords. To overcome these drawbacks it is contemplated to use some form of password encryption scheme (e.g., 8-bit, 10-bit, 16-bit) in concert with the password protection system to facilitate secure communication between an external device, such as PC client 102 and the FTP server 131. However, there are drawbacks associated even with these schemes. For example, a username and password may be encoded as a sequence of base-64 characters. For example, the user name Aladdin and password open sesame would be combined as Aladdin:open sesame, which is equivalent to QWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHN1c2FtZQ==when encoded in base-64. Little effort is required to translate the encoded string back into the user name and password, and many popular security tools will decode the strings “on the fly”, so an encrypted connection should always be used to prevent interception.

In another embodiment, an encrypted connection scheme is used. In particular, the FTP server 131 in the IED 110 uses some form of FTP security encryption, such as, for example, FTPS (FTP over SSL), Secure FTP (sometimes referred to as FTP over SSH, i.e., FTP over Secure Shell encryption (SSH)), Simple File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), or SSH file transfer protocol (SFTP). The FTP security encryption protocol provides a level of security unattainable with the previously described password encryption schemes.

FTP over SSH refers to tunneling a normal FTP session over an SSH connection. In the present disclosure, FTP uses multiple TCP connections, thus it is particularly difficult to tunnel over SSH. With many SSH clients, attempting to set up a tunnel for the control channel (the initial client-to-server connection on port 21) will protect only that channel; when data is transferred, the FTP software at either end will set up new TCP connections (i.e., data channels) which will bypass the SSH connection, and thus have no confidentiality, integrity protection, etc. If the FTP client, e.g., PC client 102, is configured to use passive mode and to connect to a SOCKS server interface, it is possible to run all the FTP channels over the SSH connection. Otherwise, it is necessary for the SSH client software to have specific knowledge of the FTP protocol, and monitor and rewrite FTP control channel messages and autonomously open new forwardings for FTP data channels.

In further embodiments, the networks may be configured to adhere to cyber security standards to minimize the number of successful cyber security attacks. The cyber security standards apply to devices, IEDs, computers and computer networks. The objective of cyber security standards includes protection of information and property from theft, corruption, or natural disaster, while allowing the information and property to remain accessible and productive to its intended users. The term cyber security standards means the collective processes and mechanisms by which sensitive and valuable information and services are protected from publication, tampering or collapse by unauthorized activities or untrustworthy individuals and unplanned events respectively. In the various embodiments and implementations of the present disclosure, the systems, devices and methods may be configured to be in accordance with, for example, the Standard of Good Practice (SoGP) as defined by the Information Security Forum, Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards as defined by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), and the ISA-99 standard as defined by the International Society for Automation (ISA), the contents of each being incorporated by reference herein. It is to be appreciated that this lists of cyber security standards is merely an exemplary list and is not meant to be exhaustive.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, the IED or metering device uses a general purpose operating system, e.g., Linux™, as its base. The IED provides communications on both network and serial interfaces, including Modbus, DNP, and HTTP. The IED monitors both three phase voltage and current, analyzes those values, and records the values in a log. These live values can then be retrieved using the aforementioned communications protocol, or as a log of values.

Each of the metering functions are added on top of the operating system as applications, each of which provides a service. For example, a Modbus server application would provide Modbus support; a web server application would provide web page support; a logging application would provide data and event logging, etc., the details of which are described below.

The IED of the present disclosure provides a platform which can be rapidly expanded and extended to add new functionality, and be quickly ported between platforms. To that end, a general purpose operating system is employed, which provides two benefits: (1) functionality can be implemented as individual applications on top of the operating system, and (2) only the underlying drivers need be changed when porting to a new platform. Additionally, the IED provides logging to keep a record of readings and events for as long as there is room to store them. The IED stores the records independent of current settings, which makes the records more resistant to system errors that would lead to invalid log items. Furthermore, the IED of the present disclosure is self contained—such that it could be configured, calibrated and tested, log retrieved, real time readings viewed, and statuses checked—all without requiring a specialized software and/or hardware to be employed. This frees up the software to focus on the larger picture of how all the meters, for example, in a network, work together.

Referring to FIG. 10, a system architecture 1000 of an IED employing a general purpose operating system in accordance with the present disclosure is illustrated. The system architecture 1000 is composed of 6 layers, each of which adds functionality on top of the previous. The layers, from lowest to highest, are as follows:

Hardware 1002—The hardware provides the physical metering capabilities, including measuring voltage, current, and high speed inputs, as well as providing the physical interface for the communications media, such as serial and networking.

DSP 1004—The DSP collects the data from the metering hardware, analyzes it, and passes it up to the higher layers.

Drivers 1006—Provides the actual implementation of the hardware specific interfaces, such that the higher layers do not need to know the details of the hardware they are running on top of.

Kernel 1008—The general purpose operating system which runs the applications, and provides the connection between the drivers, and the applications. Additionally isolates the applications from the hardware to enforce a more stringent security policy.

Applications 1010—The applications that provide the primary functionality of the meter, including logging, configuration, and communications. The application layer also provides internal data storage, system maintenance, and system stability monitoring functionality.

User Interface (IU) 1012—The interface to the outside world provided by the applications, including communications protocols such as Modbus, and UI (user interface) services such as a Web Server.

Traditionally, metering devices have been implemented using custom firmware, often which interacts directly with the hardware, and only implements and supports what is directly needed for that device when it is designed. Additionally, these implementations are often written such that all functionality is provided by a single component. This is often called a monolithic architecture. This often leads to problems when trying to expand the functionality of the device. One side effect of a monolithic architecture is that it often results in the problem that changing one component affects many of the other components. Another problem occurs when trying to port the functionality of the device to another platform. This can occur when the hardware of the device's design changes, or when the code is ported to an entirely new device. Because the firmware was written to directly access the hardware, significant modifications need to be made for it to work on the new hardware.

The IED of the present disclosure employs a general purpose operating system as the base for the components of the IED's firmware to facilitate expansion and porting of the IED For example, the general purpose operating system may be, but is not limited to, Linux™. It is to be appreciated that a custom operating system may be implemented, which performs the components described below.

Referring to FIG. 11, an IED 1100 is illustrated including a general purpose operating system 1102 executing on a CPU 1103 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The general purpose operating system 1102 includes a set of code which provides the following components:

Hardware Drivers 1104—Code which implements the hardware specific functionality, while providing a common interface that the other components can use.

Kernel 1106—The central code which starts up the system, and manages the other operating system components; provides functionality pertinent to the running of the operating system.

Process Management 1008—Management system which allows arbitrary code to run, and ensures that each code block, called a process or application, shares equal time, and is isolated from one another.

Data Storage System 1010—A method to read and write data from a long term storage media 1112. The binary of the processes, also know as applications 1106, are often stored here, separate from the kernel.

Support Applications 1114—Code which implements support functions of the operating system but not specific applications for metering applications.

On top of the general purpose operating system 1102, processes are configured and executed to provide the individual functionality of the IED; each such process is called an application or application module 1116. Each of these applications or application modules 1116 add specific functionality to the IED 1110 or meter, but are independent of the other applications. For example, an application may provide a Modbus Server. As another example, an application may provide a Web Server. As another example, an application may provide data logging.

These applications 1116 may be further extended by keeping the functionality of each application separate from the functionality of another application, such that any one application can be stopped without causing the other applications to lose significant functionality. In one implementation, an application 1116 may encapsulate all the support tools required by the application inside the application itself, with the exception of the common or support tools 1114 provided by the general purpose operating system. For example, the Modbus server application may contain the code to access the network interface provided by the operating system. As another example, an application may contain the code to interface with the file system. This implementation could be improved by allowing the support code included to be loaded from a common source, e.g., a library, such that each of these applications that use such tools would use the same code, but loaded independently, such that they do not rely on each other. For example, extending the first example, the network interface application could be supplied as a Library loaded by the Modbus server; the same Library could then be used by the Web Server, such that the code is the same, but the two instances of the Library do not rely on each other.

Another implementation, which could be used along side the above-described implementation, may be to use long term storage, such as a file system, to pass information between applications, using a data storage mechanism, such as a database. This implementation allows applications to pass useful data between each application, but even if one application stops running, the other application can continue providing it's functionality. For example, the meters readings could be stored in a database, and the Modbus server application then scans or searches the database for the current readings. This implementation may be further extended by allowing applications to start and stop without modifying the contents of these long term storage files. This implementation allows an application to be configured such that it can continue to provide it's functionality, even if the application that provides the information is unreliable or runs infrequently. For example, the data logging application could be designed to only run when a data record needs to be captured, saving system resources. The logged data would still be available to the other applications that use the logged data, such as the Web Server application or Modbus Server application.

In another implementation, the IED allows applications to use the logged data even if the entire system is unreliable. For example, the input power to the device may be turning on and off, causing the device to reset occasionally. The logging application could record readings before the Web Server application was available to present the log data to a requesting client. As another example, if the device that provides the readings, such as the DSP, was temporarily unavailable, such as if the firmware was being updated, the Web Server application can still provide the last available readings, even should the system of the IED reset.

It is to be appreciated that the use of a long term data storage, called a Data File, may be configured such that the format of that file is in a common format, such that each application that wants to use that file can easily be implemented. In one implementation, a formatting application formats the data and/or data file into a common format. For example, instead of storing the readings data in the log data file as an explicit record that stores Voltage and Current readings, the data may be configured as a record that stores a single reading, such that another application may be added that stores Power, without modifying the format of that data file.

The use of a data file could be used to further improve the applications by allowing the application to store information about the current state of the application in the data file. Then, when the application restarted, the application may load those settings, and quickly resume what it was doing. For example, an application that uploads log data to an FTP server could keep track of what data it had already uploaded; if it reset halfway through, it could resume from the last file it uploaded. As another example, an application which downloaded updates to the system could keep track of what parts of the update file it retrieved, and could resume with the parts it doesn't have if a problem occurred.

Another problem with firmware that uses a monolithic architecture occurs when a component of the system must be updated, for example, a bug was fixed. As another example, a new feature was added. As another example, the configuration of a component, such as enabling or disabling settings of a feature, may have changed. When this occurs, the most common solution is to reset the entire system, even when the change was unrelated to other components of the system. For example, a bug fix in the Modbus server would not require the web server to reset.

In an implementation of the present disclosure, the IED enables individual applications to start and stop independently of other applications. For example, if the binary for the Modbus Server application needed to be updated, the binary could be updated, and then just the Modbus Server application restarted, without requiring that the web server application, which is unrelated, be restarted. As another example, this could be done for a change in the configuration of the application, such as changing the Modbus map which the Modbus Server application is presenting to the requesting clients.

Another problem common to monolithic firmwares is that since all the functionality is contained in a single set of loaded code, it is possible for functionality to be accessed, even if the code normally would not allow it. One possible way to do this could be a buffer overrun that causes a jump to a disabled feature. Another possible way to do this could be to cause an electrical discharge onto the hardware, that causes the currently executing code to either change, or jump to another location. Another possible way to do this could be to change the setting that enables or disables that feature, or to load random settings, thus resulting in the feature accidentally being enabled.

Therefore, by allowing applications to run independent of each other as in the IED of the present disclosure, the feature that the application provides can be completely inaccessible by removing it from the storage media that it would be loaded from. For example, the Web Server application may be removed completely by removing the binaries for the Web Server application from the file system. This would prevent it from ever being used, but would not prevent unrelated features, such as logging application or the Modbus server application, from operating correctly.

In one implementation, each feature on the IED is enabled or disabled by the user. When disabled, the binaries are deleted from the system such that they cannot be called. When enabled, the binaries could be downloaded from another source, such as a remote file server, or uploaded by the client. In another implementation, instead of deleting the binary from the system, the IED is configured in such a way as to prevent them from loading. For example, the binary could be marked as not executable on the file system. As another example, the header of the binary, which is used by the general purpose operating system 1102 to determine how to load the binary, could be corrupted in a reversible manner, such as performing an XOR on each byte. As another example, the binary loader could require a specific code in the header of the binary, often called a Magic Number, to load; this Magic Number could be changed to prevent the loading of the binary.

In another implementation, the IED 1100 stores each binary in an archive on the storage media, and when the feature is enabled, the binary for that application is extracted from the archive. The binary would still be deleted when disabled. This archive may further compress the archive's contents, to save space. This archive may further encrypt the contents, such that any unauthorized changes to the archive would invalidate the archive.

Another problem common to monolithic firmware is that when a problem occurs with one component, the whole system must be restarted. This could be because all the components rely on each other. This could also be because all the components are in the same running code set. This could also be because one component has locked up, such that the other components can no longer run. Using applications, this problem is mitigated; however if that application has a problem, the functionality that it provides may no longer be available.

In one embodiment, components of IED 1100 monitor the other applications, and if a problem is detected, then the monitored application could be restarted. Only if the component that implements this functionality had a problem would the entire system have to reset. In one implementation, the IED 1100 includes an application that performs this monitoring functionality. In another implementation, the process management component 1108 of the general purpose operating system 1102 is configured to monitor the individual applications.

In one embodiment, the monitoring functionality, e.g., the process management component 1108, monitors the application's running status, for example, by checking a process id of the application. If the monitor sees that the application is not running, but that it should be, the monitor may then restart the application. In a further embodiment, the monitoring functionality may be configured such that each application includes a function that notifies the monitor, e.g., the process management component 1108, that it is running. For example, this could be implemented as a file that is written by the application on a timer, and the monitor checks that file to see if it is being updated. In another embodiment, each application may generate a system message, such as a network socket, or a pipe. This notification may also include additional status information, such as operational state, to the monitor.

Many devices implement a hardware function that resets the system if that hardware is not notified that the system is still running correctly on some interval. This is often called a watchdog. In one embodiment, the monitoring functionality e.g., the process management component 1108, performs the notification of the watchdog, as it is the component that is best able to make that determination. The monitoring functionality e.g., the process management component 1108, may further include a set of rules, called heuristics, that it could use to determine if the problems with the system are significant enough that it requires a full reset. For example, if applications are failing to start because they are unable to access the storage media, restarting the general purpose operating system may help. As another example, if a hardware device, such as the serial ports, are not accessible by the applications, then restarting the system may help. It is to be appreciated, that each of the IEDs described above may include a watchdog component. For example, in one embodiment, IED 10 includes watchdog component 17, which is described in greater detail below.

In one embodiment, the general purpose operating system 1102 is configured to include a common data interface 1200, as shown in FIG. 12, to allow the applications that are running on it to be implemented in such a way that they do not need to know what hardware they are directly using. Devices such as meters have specialized data collecting devices not found in most general purpose operating systems. For example, many have analog to digital converters, used to measure voltage or current. As another example, many have digital inputs which measure the shorted/not shorted state of the wires they are connected to. This data often needs to be used by the top level functionality of the meter, but in the isolated model of a general purpose operating system, those top level applications do not have direct access to the data collection hardware of the system. For example, the web server application may want to present voltage on a web page.

Referring to FIG. 12, the common data interface 1200 includes a driver 1204 that accesses a data collection component 1202, e.g., DSP 60,70 as shown in FIG. 1, and a interface application 1206 that applications 1208 can use to read the data collected, called a Library. The driver 1204 receives data from the data collection component 1202 and fills memory 1210, e.g., volatile memory, with the data. The interface application 1206 retrieves the data in the memory 1210 for at least one application 1208, via driver 1204. The driver 1204 then may be changed for new hardware, without changing the data access library, thus allowing applications 1208 to be used on different devices, with different hardware, with no change to their code. The data access library may be expanded by providing data other then just the data collected from data collection component 1202. For example, system state information, such as uptime, memory available, data storage space used, and applications running, could be provided. As another example, system configuration information, such as the IP address, device serial number, device type, designation, etc., may be provided.

One implementation of the transfer of data between the data collection component and the memory accessible from the CPU, is to use a DMA controller to transfer the data between the memories of each of the two processors. For example, the kernel running on the CPU could specify a section of its memory to the DMA controller as the location to write data updates to. Then, when the data collection component had an update to the data, it could trigger the DMA controller to transfer the data.

In one embodiment, the CPU includes a first DMA controller 1250 coupled to memory 1210 and the data collection component 1202, e.g., DSP, includes a second DMA controller 1254 coupled to memory 1256. The first DMA controller 1250 is employed to transfer data to the memory 1256 of the data collection component 1202 and the second DMA controller 1254 is employed to transfer data to memory 1210.

A DMA controller can generate addresses and initiate memory read or write cycles. It contains several registers that can be written and read by the CPU. These include a memory address register, a byte count register, and one or more control registers. The control registers specify the I/O port to use, the direction of the transfer (reading from the I/O device or writing to the I/O device), the transfer unit (byte at a time or word at a time), and the number of bytes to transfer in one burst. To carry out an input, output or memory-to-memory operation, the host processor initializes the DMA controller with a count of the number of words to transfer, and the memory address to use. The CPU then sends commands to a peripheral device to initiate transfer of data. The DMA controller then provides addresses and read/write control lines to the system memory. Each time a word of data is ready to be transferred between the peripheral device and memory, the DMA controller increments its internal address register until the full block of data is transferred.

The transfer of data between processors is limited both in the size of the block that can be transferred, and the time it takes to perform the transfer. However, since only a small portion of the data needs to be updated frequently, it would be wasteful to repeat updates by transferring all the data all the time.

One implementation is to break the data into frames, based on the update rate of the data, and only send the frames for the data which needs to be updated. Such a frame could contain a header which specify which data is contained within the frame, so that the driver 1204 can interpret what data is being updated when it receives the frame. Additionally, the header of the frame could contain an update index, so that the driver could identify the order and relation in time of the updated data.

One implementation of the transfer of frames could be to organize the frames in the time domain, such that the fast updating frames are transferred every update, but that the remaining frames are used to transfer lower priority frames that have been queued to be updated. For example, say the maximum data update rate is 4 ms, and the throughput allows for 10 frames to be transferred every 4 ms. On each update, 5 of the frames transferred could be 4 ms updated data, which must be updated every transfer. This leaves 5 frames left over for other update rates. If 50 frames need to be updated every 200 ms, 1 frame each update cycle could be dedicated to transferring these 200 ms frames. If 10 frames need to be updated every 1 second (1000 ms), 1 frame every 100 ms, or 25 update cycles, could be used to transfer these 1 second updated frames. Other arrangements are possible, including using the remaining available frames to transfer slower data when necessary. Also it should be appreciated that the transfer of lower priority frames could be deferred to a later update to make room for higher priority frames, and as such, the arrangement of frames in time is not fixed.

Another implementation of the transfer of frames could be to organize the frames in the data domain, such that all related is transferred together, as a history of updates. For example, say the maximum data update rate is 4 ms, and the throughput allows for 10 frames to be transferred every 4 ms. If 1250 frames of 4 ms data must be transferred every second, then all 10 frames of each update cycle could be used for the first 500 ms of each second to transfer the 1250 frames of the history of the previous second. When the receiving driver 1204 processes the frames, it could use the update index to properly arrange the updated data in time. The remaining 500 ms could then be used to transfer other data in a similar arrangement.

One common problem when designing data interfaces occurs when the data is passed as a fixed layout structure. For example, a structure could be used to pass the data that has a 4 byte unsigned integer for voltage, followed by another 4 byte unsigned integer for current. However, should that interface need to change, for example the values need to be passed as floating point, or a new value needs to be passed, the entire interface must change. This often requires that both the source of the data, and the consumer, change to match. This is often very difficult when the consumer of the data is an external software, such as a Modbus client. Alternatively, if a data access library is used, an explicit function to get each value, often called a property, is implemented. If new values are added, the interface to the data access library must be changed, which again requires that the consumer of the data change.

In another embodiment, the interface 1206 uses a key, independent of the physical layout of the structure to access the data. In one implementation, a string key, such as ‘readings.volts.an’, is provided which is mapped to the value in the memory 1210 by an interface library 1302 as shown in FIG. 13. For example, the data access library could have a function, GetReading, which takes as input the key, and returns the value requested. This would prevent the applications that use the data access library from having to change if new items were added.

In another embodiment, the data map interface 1302 employs a special library or map, which is knowledgeable about the internal layout of the data in memory 1210. For example, in version 1 of the data layout, volts AN may be stored at an offset of 1000 bytes, and be stored as a 4 byte signed integer. In version 2 of the data layout, volts AN may have moved to an offset of 1036 bytes. In version 3 of the data layout, volts AN may have changed to be stored as a IEEE 4 byte floating point number. In such an example, if there are three applications that use that value, say a web page, a data logger, and a Modbus server, under conventional designs each would have to be updated each time the internal data layout was changed. With such a data map interface of the present disclosure, only the one library would have to be updated, which could easily be included as part of the update to the source of the internal data layout, such as the data collection firmware 1202, e.g. a DSP.

In further embodiment, the data map interface 1302 is configured to a special library, which uses a configuration file 1304 to specify the internal layout and format of the data in memory 1210. For example, such a configuration file 1304 could specify that volts AN is at an offset of 1000 bytes, and has a format of a 4 byte integer. When the data map interface 1302 is initialized, the interface 1302 then loads the map in the configuration file 1304, and use that map to find the requested data. For example, such a configuration file may contain 3 entries for each item: the lookup key, the byte offset, and the format of the item. When an item was requested, the data map interface 1302 would find the key in the configuration file 1304, and use the byte offset and format to read and parse the data to be returned to the requester. The configuration file 1304 may also be loaded on first use, or every time data is requested. In such an example, if the internal data layout changed, such as moving volts AN to an offset of 1036 bytes, the configuration file 1304 could be updated along with the data collection firmware 1202, e.g., DSP, avoiding the need to update the data map interface library.

In other embodiments, the configuration file 1304 may be generated from the same layout that the data collection firmware component 1202 uses. This could help prevent mismatches between the configuration file 1304, and the actual implementation of the layout. In one embodiment, the configuration file 1304 may be configured be to store the each item and it's layout in a management software during development, such that the management software could export both the configuration file, and the source code to be included in the data collection firmware component 1202. Additionally, the configuration file 1304 includes a special item in the data map interface that requests the configuration directly from the data collection firmware 1202. Such a configuration file could be stored in the data collection firmware's memory storage, or as part of the firmware itself, and written to the internal data memory when it first starts running. Such a file could also be requested as part of a windowed command to the data collection firmware.

In yet another embodiment, the configuration file 1304 includes additional information, such as, but not limited to, display names, formatting information, groups of items, and descriptions of the usage of an item. Such a configuration file may then be used by top level applications, to provide information on each item available. Additionally, this would allow applications to use newly added items, without modifying the application. For example, a data logging application could display a list of items able to be logged to the user, where such a list was built by reading the configuration file.

The keyed interface 1302 could be further improved by using a configuration file 1304 that contains the list of keys that an application should use. For example, the Web Server could have a web page that displays voltages, and have a configuration file that lists each of the keys for the voltage that it is to display. The configuration file 1304 could be used to improve the functionality of the applications, such as the Modbus server, by configuring it such that layout it presents would be similar, or the same, as another device. For example, the Modbus server could be configured to present addressed data, called the Modbus Map, in the same way as an older meter, thus allowing it to be used with external software that only works with that old meter.

The configuration file may be configured to store a name to be presented to the user, so that the user can easily understand what value is associated with the key, called a Display Name. For example, ‘readings.volts.an’ could be displayed as ‘Voltage AN’. This would facilitate changing configurations, which would be to display the Display Name along with the displayed value, such that the user could easily understand what the value is. For example, on a web page that displays voltages and currents, the names ‘Volts AN’ and ‘Current A’ could be used to easily distinguish such items from each other. If the configuration value changed, such that the position on the page which previously displayed ‘Volts AN’ now shows ‘Watts 1+4 Phase A’, the user can easily distinguish the two by name.

The keyed interface 1302 could be further improved by allowing the consumer or end user to specify the format that it wants the data in. For example, the internal structure may define a voltage as an 4 byte integer, but the consumer wants it as a float. As another example, the internal structure may have originally defined the format to be a 2 byte integer, but was later changed to a 4 byte integer; the consumer has always requested it as a float, so no change needs to be made to the consumer application. As another example, an external software may only know how to parse 2 byte signed integers, but the device internally stores the value as a double; down scaling would be required.

Since the configuration file may change from time to time, the external software may not be aware of what items it is seeing. For example, a Modbus Map is just an arbitrary block of 2 byte values, called registers, which must be parsed to get the contained values. One possible solution to this could be to provide a method to retrieve the current map, so that any external software that used it would be able to parse the current data arrangement. In one embodiment, a fixed section or item is provided, that contains the configuration for the external software to download. For example, with the Modbus server, a group of Modbus registers in the Modbus map could always return the configuration file, ignoring the configuration for those registers. As another example, with the DNP server, a fixed object could be set to always return the configuration file.

Another possible implementation of this could be to provide an alternative method to retrieve the configuration, outside of the functionality it configures. For example, the Modbus map configuration could be downloaded via a web page. As another example, the Modbus server could respond to a command to send the configuration file to a client by opening a specified port on the client, and streaming the file. This would then be collected by a listener on the client, which could then use the configuration file.

In other embodiments, the keyed interface 1302 is configured to allow writes to internal values, such as system settings, command triggers, temporary variables, long term storage variables, using the key to identify were to write the value, called a Keyed Write. One implementation of this includes adding a function to the data access library, SetValue, which takes a given value, and performs the necessary actions to store that value.

Devices such as meters typically use addressed protocols such as Modbus to allow external clients to read their values. Such a pairing of addresses and value definitions is here called a map. However, since many devices are designed such that the addresses of each value is typically fixed, many external clients are written such that they expect the value to be at that address. Changing this may require extensive configuration, reimplementation, or in the case of old software that is no longer maintained, may not be possible anymore. This causes problems when new devices are added, or existing devices are replaced, that don't use the same addresses.

In one implementation, a device that uses an addressed protocol, such as Modbus, may mimic the map of another device. This would allow new meters that supported such a solution to be added to an existing system without reconfiguring that system. One implementation of mimicking another map could be to implement a configurable mode in the device that when set, the protocol server, such as a Modbus server, of that device uses the map of another device. This could include mimicking the addresses of values in the map, as well as mimicking static values, such as device identification information, so that external clients that use that identification information will believe the device they are communicating with is the old device.

Another implementation of mimicking another map could be for the protocol server, such as a Modbus server, to use a configuration file to describe the map that it uses. Such a configuration file could be designed to mimic the map of another device by specifying for each protocol address: the protocol address to use; the format of value, such as 4 byte signed integer, or 8 byte IEEE float; and the internal value to map the protocol address to. When an external client requested the value of an address from the server, the server could then process the configured map of protocol address, determine the internal value to query, transform it to the format the configured map specifies, and return the mimicked value to the external client. Such a configuration map file could be stored as an xml file, a csv file, or a json file, each of which allows the grouping of entries, such as protocol address, format, and internal address, though other such file formats could also be used.

Using a configurable map file could be further extended by allowing multiple such files to be used on a device, such that the user could select which device to mimic from a list of maps. For example, a device could contain the configuration map for 5 other device types. The list of these device types could be presented to the user, allowing him to choose which map the protocol server would use, until the map was next changed. This implementation could be further improved by allowing external clients to send a command to the protocol server to specify which map to use, such as a Modbus write, where the map to use is a name, or an index in a list.

Using a configurable map file could be further extended by allowing the user to import and export those file to and from the meter. For example, a webpage that is used to configure the Modbus server could list each of the configuration maps that the device contains. Such a page could also have an export button, that when pressed could download the configuration map file from the meter. Such a page could also have an import button, that when pressed could upload a configuration map file from the user's computer, which could then be selected to be used for the Modbus server.

Using a configurable map file could be further extended by allowing the user to configure their own maps. Such configuration could be done by editing an exported configuration map file directly, then importing it back into the meter. Such configuration could also be done by providing a webpage on the meter's webserver that provides the ability to edit a configuration map file. Such a page could provide actions including, but not limited to, copying another configuration map file, creating a new configuration map file, deleting a configuration map file, adding an address entry to an existing map, changing the parameters of an existing address entry in a map, deleting an address entry from a map, or copying the parameters of an address entry in a map.

Protocol servers, such as Modbus servers, typically operate on multiple ports, such as, but not limited to, multiple rs-485 or rs-232 interfaces, and TCP ports. Using a configurable map file could be further extended by allowing each protocol server on each port to use a different configuration map file. For example, a device which has a Modbus server running on 2 rs-485 ports, and TCP ports 502, 5000, and 5001, and which has configuration map files for 5 different device types, could mimic a different device on each port.

One problem that occurs when the consumer of data is not the component that directly accesses the hardware is that this introduces an inherent, non-deterministic, delay between when the value was measured, and when it is presented. This is often called latency. Additionally, if the measured value is updating rapidly, and multiple measurements are being read by the consumer, there exists the possibility that the measurements may not be from the same point in time. Additionally, this is further complicated when the consumer requires that it have the measurement values at a specific point in time, often called an event. For example, voltage may spike for a short period of time, and the consumer may want to record other values at the same time.

In one implementation, the IED buffers the values, such that a short history of such values are available to the consumer. Then, when the consumer wants the values from a specific point in time, that value can be read from the buffer. One implementation of this request could be to use an index, the details of which are described below in relation to FIG. 13B. Another possible implementation could be to use a key, such as an offset, a timestamp, or a reference index of an event.

One implementation of buffering the data could be to store each block of data 1210 transferred from the data collection component 1202 in a different location in memory, such that previous blocks would still be available after the current block 1210 has been updated. One configuration of this is represented in FIG. 13B. Each update to the data blocks 1210 by the driver 1204 places the new data in the next spot in circular buffer 1230. Each of these blocks would then be listed in reference table 1232, and have a unique index 1234. On the application side, when an application requests a data value 1236, the request 1236 may specify an index 1234, and the interface 1206 could then read the value from a previous block of data then the current one. The current data could still be requested by not specifying an index 1234. Such an implementation could be used for any data value accessible from the data interface 1206, including data values such as voltage, current, power, or energy, as well as system values such as processor usage, and events, such as pq events, waveform samples, and limits.

One of the common problems encountered when developing and maintaining devices such as meters is that a large amount of effort must be put into developing and maintaining external support software. For example, a meter may require a suite of testing softwares including calibration, board level tests, and configuration verification tools, often used during the building of the device for a customer. As another example, configuration softwares are often created to provide the user the ability to configure the device. As another example, log softwares are often created to retrieve a meter's logs, and other softwares created to view those logs. As another example, programming software is often created to upload the firmware to the device.

In addition, these softwares need to be maintained in parallel to the firmware they support, which can lead to disjoints in functionality and support when major changes are made to the firmware. Furthermore, since these softwares are external to the device, there is inherent delay in interfacing with the device, which may lead to error in the data transferred. In addition, the device must be programmed with extra functionality to provide the interface for these external softwares to interact with the device.

In one embodiment, the IED 1100 is configured to be self contained include a plurality of application provide all of the functionality to configure, test, and poll the device from the device itself. This would provide 3 benefits: (1.) if common libraries are used, then it is easier to keep these functions up to date, when the device provides them itself; (2.) since there is little to no interfacing with external software required, the data can be more accurate, which can especially improve testing processes such as calibration; and (3.) since there is little to no interfacing with external software required, and the device's firmware already has the ability to access its own internal values, the process of implementing the functionality provided is simpler.

In one implementation, the IED 1400 is configured to includes a plurality of applications or modules 1402, for example, to be executed by the CPU 1404 to configure, test, and poll the device from the device itself. For example, the applications may include, but are not limited to, a web server module 1408, a command interface test module 1409, an update module 1410, a security module 1411, a core items module 1412, a network discovery module 1414, a replication module 1416, a logging module 1418 and a formatting module 1418 as shown in FIG. 14.

In one embodiment, the web server module 1408 presents web pages for each internal functionality required of the IED 1100. For example, a page may be presented which contains the current readings of the device. As another example, a page may be presented which allows the user to configure the device settings, such as communications parameters, metering parameters, device identification. As another example, a page may be presented which initiates a self test in the device, which verifies that the meter is operating correctly, and then presents the results to the user as another page, or as new contents on the current page. As another example, a page may be presented which allows the user to retrieve the logs of the device, downloaded as a file. As another example, these same logs could be displayed on a web page.

A command interface test module 1409 is provided which interacts with various components such as a touch screen, web page, proprietary command interface, or Modbus command, initiates a test with specified settings. The settings could be specified as part of the command, a file stored on the device, or settings initialized through another command interface. For example, a meter could have a self calibration test, which computes offsets and gains to make the readings of the meter more accurate. This test could employ an external device, such as a steady source, to output known input values, such as voltage or current, by physically connecting the communications ports of the meter to the source and sending the appropriate commands. The voltage and current output terminals of the source would be connected to the voltage and current input terminals of the device. Additionally, the meter could employ the same method to use an external reference device, used to verify and compensate for inaccurate or unsteady sources. This external reference device would also be hooked up to the voltage and current output's of the source.

These internal tests may be stored as a report of the results of the test in the file storage of the device. This report may later be viewed by the user to verify the current tested state of the device. For example, a calibration report could be stored, which could, for each point calibrated, contain error percentage, reference values, values measured, and the calibration values computed. Additionally, these stored reports may store the configured values of the tests in multiple separate files, which could then be selected at a later date to change the current configuration. For example, a meter could be calibrated in such a way as to emphasize accuracy at a high voltage, and then calibrated again to emphasize accuracy at a low voltage. These calibrations could later be selected from to improve the accuracy for a given nominal input. Since in most circumstances, readings are relatively steady, multiple calibrations may be analyzed by a process or application which monitors the readings of the device, and automatically picks the calibration which has been optimized for the current range of the readings. A heuristic could be used to ensure that the calibrations do not keep bouncing back and forth. For example, the readings could be steady for a period of time before switching to that range.

It is to be appreciated that the applications to perform the test may be provided on the IED 1100 and later removed when it is no longer needed. These applications could later be given to the user to include on their device, allowing them to repeat the test should it be necessary or desired. For example, an application for the device could be created which performs calibration. This application may be used to calibrated the device in the factory, then removed, as it requires hardware, such as the external source and reference, that are no longer available. Later, the user may wish that the device be recalibrated, perhaps to adjust for issues with the context of the devices installation. The application, along with instructions for connecting the external devices, could then be given to the user to perform these actions. As another example, the meter could be recalibrated by the user to emphasize accuracy at a point which the factory calibration doesn't emphasize.

Another problem often encountered with such devices occurs when the user encounters problems with the functionality provided by the device, but which the problem has already been fixed. For example, a bug may exist in the version of the Modbus server which the user has on their device, but a newer version that fixes this problem is already available. As another example, a security flaw may have been found and patched in the general purpose operating system, but without the updated operating system, the device is still exposed.

In one embodiment, an update module 1410 is provided to automatically query an external server for updates, and if there are any updates available, download and update those applications. In one embodiment, the IED is configured to have an application on the device, which periodically checks the external server for new updates. If an update is found, it could download the update, and replace the application being updated. In one embodiment, the user configures the update application such that it only performs the update if the user confirms the update. In one embodiment, the user is notified in some manner of the update, such as an email, a list on the web page, an event in the system log, or a notification on the display of the IED

The transfer of the application may be further facilitated by compressing the update to the application being transferred from the external server to the IED. This would improve the speed of downloading the update, and reduce the required storage space on both the IED and the external server.

Since the external server could be faked, as a method of hijacking the device's functionality, the process of interacting with the external server could be further improved by securing the connection to the external server, via a security module 1411. In one implementation, the security module 1411 may employ HTTPS to ensure that the external server is who the IED expect them to be. In another implementation, the security module 1411 may employ SSL (Secure Socket Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security) to wrap the data transferred to and from the external update server.

Since the above methods rely on certificates, which can be faked, the security module 1411 may employ a challenge and response between the IED and the external server, to ensure the external server is real. In one implementation, the external server is configured to have a unique file, whose contents are computed periodically by a private algorithm shared between the IED and the external server. In another implementation, the external server has a special network service running, which sends a generated key, using a private algorithm shared between the IED and the external server, to the device on request. Another implementation employs this same special network server, but for the external server to also require the device to send the external server a generated key.

In one embodiment, the IED is configured to include an application on the IED which performs the functionality of the external server, using either an archive of updates specifically for that purpose, or the updates that it used for it's own functionality. In this embodiment, the update application or module 1410 replicates the external server for other IEDs. For example, an IED with such an external server application could download application updates from an external update server, called the Primary Update Server. Then other devices, e.g., other IEDs, may the query updates from the IED's update application or module 1410 without requiring access to the Primary Update Server. This could then be chained for as long as necessary by the user. In this embodiment, the update application or module 1410 may be configured to notify other devices that an update is available, without their having to query for the update. In one implementation, the update application or module 1410 employs the use of a local network broadcast message, such as UDP, or UPnP event notification, send from the IED to any listening devices. In another implementation, the other IEDs may register with the update application or module 1410 that it wants to be notified of updates. In this embodiment, the update application or module 1410 keeps a list of such devices, and when an update is found, it sends a message specifically to each of those devices. For example, this message could be an HTTP Post. As another example, this message could be a private message sent over TCP or UDP.

Another problem with updating the functionality on a device is that often changes to one application require changes to another application. For example, the Modbus server may require the networking library, the data access library, and driver which reads from the measurement hardware. If a change is made to the data access library, then the Modbus server application may not be able to be updated without also updating the data access library.

In one implementation, the update application or module 1410 includes a list of dependencies for each application. These dependencies could be other applications, which would be required to be updated along with the primary application. In one embodiment, when the update application or module 1410 checks for updates, if the application being checked has any dependencies, it checks those applications first, updating them as necessary, then updating the first application at the end. Another possible implementation of this could be that dependencies are packages of multiple updates, all of which are applied at once, to ensure that everything is updated correctly.

It is to be appreciated that the above described features relating to updating application on IED 1100 will be described in further detail below in reference to FIGS. 21A, 21B and 22.

Often when a user gets a new device, they must configure both the device and their external system for everything to work the way that they want it to. This is often a time consuming, and error prone, process. For example, the wrong items could be chosen for the logs, only to be found a month later when expected data is missing. As another example, the communications could be misconfigured, forcing a back and forth procedure between the device and external software to get the two to communicate. As another example, the user may have hundreds of devices, each of which have similar settings, but the user must manually configure each and every device, easily leading to repetition errors.

In one embodiment, the IED is configured to have a set of configurations and actions, which are always available regardless of how the user configures the device, stored in a core items module 1412. The core items module 1412 provides the functionality and data which the majority of users would need, the majority of the time. In one embodiment, the core items could be to define a set of data points which describe the most common uses of a metering device. For example, this list could include voltage, current, power, energy, and frequency. As another example, the core items include the accumulators of the device. As another example, the core items may include the raw values read from the measurement hardware of the device. The core items may also include the average, maximum, and minimum value of each of the points in the data set, over a defined interval, for example, the core items module 1412 may be configured to measure the voltage for an interval of 15 minutes, and use the average of those values, along with the max value, and the min value, for the values in the core items. The core items may be automatically logging by core items module 1412 on a defined interval. This my be configured using the same interval as the core item average, max, and min defined interval, for example, the average, max, and min core items may be logged to a core items log every 15 minutes.

It is to be appreciated that having these core items available also allows the other functionality provided by the IED to rely on those values being available. For example, a web page could be created that shows a trend of voltage over the last day. As another example, a web page may be created that compares the energy usage of the current day with the previous one. As another example, an application may be created that analyzes the trends of the core items, looking for power quality problems, and reporting if any are found. As another example, an application may be added to the device, that relies on these core items, and be able to perform actions based on data from before the application was added, as it does not require a dedicated log that the application must create.

The IED 1100 further includes a network discovery module 1414 configured to auto-detect the communications settings on both the IED and external network side. The network discovery module 1414 eliminates the possibility of the user misconfiguring the communications settings.

In one implementation of network discovery, a DHCP server may be employed that allows a client, a personal computer (PC), to query the list of connected DHCP clients, e.g., IEDs or meters, and have the default configuration of the IED to get its network address from DHCP. This list would contain both the network address of the IED, and a unique name specified by the IED This unique name could be parsed by the client to determine if it is the IED in question.

In one embodiment, the network discovery module 1414 employs a service advertisement protocol on the IED as shown in FIG. 15A. The IED 1502 broadcasts service advertisement 1504 over a network 1506, where the network forwards messages, i.e., the service advertisement 1504, to other devices on the network 1506. The clients 1508, 1510 and/or server 1512 then listen for such advertisements to determine what devices are available on the network. Again, the IED 1502 is configured for DHCP, and allows a server 1512 on the network to determine it's network address. In one embodiment, the IED may be configured for a specific address. It should be appreciated that such an advertisement protocol does not require that the advertiser, i.e., the IED 1502, know the recipient of the advertisement message. This may be achieved by using non-connection oriented protocols, such as multicast and anycast UDP, though other such protocols exist.

In one embodiment, the IED 1502 may be configured to operate under a UPnP protocol. The UPnP is a protocol which allows devices to advertise what functionality is available, as well as provide status updates to a registered client. UPnP is a public protocol, specified in IEC 29341, which devices on a network can use to advertise to other devices on that network that they support certain services. Such a device, e.g., an IED, that advertises services is known as a root device. Devices which listen for service announcements are known as control points. Other service advertisement protocols exist, which could also be used.

Referring to FIG. 15B, IED 1502 is configured as a UPnP root device and operates by periodically broadcasting a SSDP NOTIFY message 1520 to the UDP multicast address 239.255.255.250, port 1900 of server 1512. SSDP (Simple Service Discovery Protocol) is an extension to the HTTP protocol, which uses the commands NOTIFY 1520 to advertise services, and M-SEARCH 1522 to query for services. The NOTIFY 1520 contains information such as the location and USN (Unique Service Name), which are used by the control point to further query the root device for additional information about the service. The location parameter is an XML formatted file, called a device descriptor 1524, which contains information about the device, such as manufacturer, model, serial, and a list of services which the device supports. Each service has a type code, which identifies how the control point should interact with the service, and what features it supports. For example, network storage devices use the type “schemas-upnp-org:service:nascontrol”, and media players include services such as “schemas-upnp-org:service:ConnectionManager”. Each of these services also contain a control and event URL, which are used by the control point to send commands and request updates from the device via SOAP messages.

Additionally, control points can broadcast a SSDP M-SEARCH message to UDP multicast address 239.255.255.250, port 1900, which a root device will respond to by unicasting a NOTIFY to the requester.

Because UPnP relies on UDP multicast, it is restricted to a local network. This can be overcome through the use of gateway devices, such as routers that support bridging multicast messages across two networks, such as the use of the Internet Gateway Device Protocol, via other communication topologies described above.

In one implementation of UPnP for auto-discovery, a unique device types may be used in the model field of the device descriptor file. Control points could then detect the known device, and parse the connection information from the rest of the parameters. In another implementation, unique service type codes are to be used in the NOTIFY 1520 and M-SEARCH 1522, for example by using a “manufacturer:service:modbus” for devices which support Modbus connections, or “manufacturer:service:web” for devices which support HTTP web services. Control points could then detect the known service, and parse the connection information from the rest of the parameters. Additionally, control points could send M-SEARCH requests to elicit NOTIFY's from all devices that supported the requested connection type.

The IED may be configured to support the UPnP protocol by customizing the network discovery module 1414 for the features which the device supports. For example, service control commands may allow for a security risk in the IED, and could be left out of the implementation if not required. As another example, service events may also allow for a security risk in the IED, and could be left out of the implementation if not required. As another example, the use of specific service types, such as “manufacturer:service:modbus” could be implemented. When the device UPnP protocol was started, it could broadcast a NOTIFY with the services supported, and further repeat that NOTIFY on a timer. It could also listen for M-SEARCH requests, and respond with a NOTIFY to each requester. It could also listen for service descriptor requests, typically as web requests over HTTP, and respond with the descriptor xml file.

In a further embodiment, the network discovery module 1414 is configured to use a public server with a known address as an address book. When the IED starts, the network discovery module 1414 sends a message to the public server to register it's address, and any client may query this public server to get the address of the device. This known address may be implemented as either a fixed IP address, or a DNS address. The public server may be configured to have the entries in the address book be removed after a period of time of no activity from the IED Therefore, the network discovery module 1414 may update the public server periodically with a new registration, but would allow dead entries to be removed. It is to be appreciated that the public server may be configured to act as a communications relay with the IED. In this way, the client never needs to know the address of the IED, nor needs there be a direct communications path from the client to the IED For example, the client may query the public server for a list of all available devices, and the user would select which of those devices they wish to communicate to. The client may then send the messages to the public server, addressed for the selected device, which would then relay the messages on to the appropriate network address of the device. When the device responded, the public server would then relay the response to the client.

Since the public server could possibly be accessed by multiple users, and it may be desired that those users not be able to access each others' devices, therefore, a user id may be configured, where each IED registered in the public server would have a user id attached to it, possibly assigned when the user purchases the IED. This could also have the added benefit of preventing the user from reselling the device without including the original seller in the transaction. The user id may then be entered into the client software when the user queries the public server. When the client queries the public server for the list of known devices, and when it sends a message to such a device, it would include the user id, which the public server would use to verify and filter the allowed actions.

It is to be appreciated that other methods may be employed by the IED to avoid misconfiguration by the a user. For example, the network discovery module 1414 may prompt a user to verify the settings configured by the user before allowing them to be used. For example, if the user configures the device to have an IP address that is already in use on the network. As another example, if the user adds a log item that doesn't exist. In one embodiment, the IED is configured via a user interface (UI), such as a web page generated by web server module 1402, where the UI prevents the user from entering such invalid configurations. In another embodiment, when the configuration is posted to the device, for example with an HTTP POST, the data could be passed to another element of the UI, which would verify the configuration, possibly notifying the user of errors. Another possible implementation could be after the configuration has been posted to the device, it is passed to another application, which verifies that it is correct, possibly generating a report of errors that could be used by the UI to notify the user of such errors. In one implementation, the modified configuration used by the device is not implemented until the new configuration is verified.

As mentioned previously, one source of error when configuring devices is when having to update multiple devices with the same, or similar, settings. This is further complicated when there are settings which need to be different between each device. For example, the designation of each device should be different. This is further complicated when there are different settings which need to be different between each device. For example, on meter may require a different CT Ratio then all the other meters, and another meter may require a different hookup setting then the other devices.

Referring to FIG. 16, one implementation to update multiple devices is to enable the configuration/data of the device to be exported from the target device 1602, and then imported to another similar device 1604, e.g., a recipient device, via replication module 1416. It is to be appreciated that, in another embodiment, the replication of the configuration/data data may be initiated from the receipt device 1604 which imports the configuration/data from a target device 1602, via the replication module 1602.

Referring to FIG. 17, a method for replicating a IED is illustrated. In step 1702, an IED is selected from which configuration/data is to be exported. The replication application or module 1416 is then initiated, in step 1704. In step 1708, the replication module 1416 collects all the configurations of the device, and outputs those configurations in a file format, that can then be returned to the user, in step 1712. A replication module on another IED may then take this file, step 1714, uploaded to the other IED by the user, and parse out the configurations contained within, updating the IED, step 1718.

In one embodiment, the collected data is tagged by replication module 1416 before exporting the file, step 1710. These configuration/data files could be tagged using a text based tag-value pair format, where the tag is a key to the setting, and the value is a string representation of the value. Then, when the settings are transferred between devices, even if those devices are not the same device and thus have different internal formats and layouts for their settings, the settings in the configuration file can still be loaded and used. In one embodiment, settings or configuration data which do not apply to the recipient device can be ignored.

In other embodiments, the data is not tagged but imported from the target device 1602 based on a location where the data or configuration settings are stored, e.g., based on a map or index.

Optionally, the user may be provided with a UI where the user could select what settings they would want to export/import. Referring back to FIG. 17, the user can select the configurations/data to export before the replication module 1416 collects the data. Alternatively, the UI on the recipient device could allow the user to select what settings they would not want to import, step 1716. For example, the communications settings may be select to not be imported. As another example, just the log settings may be selected to be imported.

Another possible implementation of the configuration files could be to have individual configuration files exported for each category of configuration, allowing individual sections to be updated independently. This could be further improved by providing the user with a UI that they could select what settings they would want to export. Then, only those settings would be imported. Alternatively, the user could select just the configuration files they wished to import.

This manual copying of configuration settings could be cumbersome. Therefore, in one embodiment, the replication module 1416 is configured to request the settings from another device, and import those settings, also known as settings replication. In one implementation, the UI enables the user to enter the network address of the device to replicate, step 1720, along with the settings to include. When the user tells the device to begin, the replication module 1416 requests the configuration files from the device to be replicated, and then imports the configuration files.

The selection of the device to replicate may be further simplified by supporting the same network discovery functionality that the external clients have. For example, a device may query the list of all other similar devices step 1722, and present that list to the user to select which device to replicate, step 1702. Additionally, the user may be presented with a list of features and settings which each device supports. One possible implementation of this could be to use the service discovery feature of the network discovery functionality, such as the service advertisement of UPnP, as described above. Another possible implementation could be for each device to provide a settings file which contains the list of all settings it supports. These lists could then be displayed to the user on the UI to assist them in deciding which device to replicate. For example, the list could be displayed as a text list of each setting supported. As another example, the list could be displayed as a list of icons, each icon uniquely identifying the setting it represents. Alternatively, the user could select which features are required for replication, and only devices which support those features would be displayed.

Sometimes, when a device is retired from service, it would be desirable for the device which it replaces to act as if it was the previous device, including the data that the previous device recorded. For example, a meter may have an error in the hardware, requiring that it be replaced. The meter has been recording voltage, current, and energy for the previous year, and that history is used, and expected, by external client software. Here, the replication module 1416 is to include data files, here called data replication. This data replication could support all the functionality previously described. This replication could be further extended by allowing the direction of the replication to be reversed. For example, a device could present a UI that would allow the user to select a device for this device to replicate to, called the target. The device could then upload it's settings and data to the target.

One implementation of the meter replication file could be to store the replication settings using XML. XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. It defines information as a combination of nodes and attributes, such that a well defined hierarchy of information is possible. Many other formats have been defined based on XML, which could also be used, such as SOAP and XHTML.

For example, the communications settings for the device could be defined as a node in the XML document, which then contained a separate node for the communications parameters of each port. Each of these communications nodes could then specify the port settings, such as baud rate, parity, and address, as attributes, though they could also be specified as nodes.

As another example, the logging settings could be specified as a node in the XML document, which then contained a child node for each item to be logged. The item node could then specify the logging information, including the internal item to be logged, as well as the rate that it is to be logged at, as attributes. The root logging node could also provide a default logging interval as an attribute.

As another example, the XML document may contain both the communications node, the logging node, and any other sections of settings that have been defined. When importing and processing the settings, the device would then process the name of the XML node to determine what settings it refers to.

The meter replication file could be further extended by also using it for the configuration of the meters settings, as well as for the internal storage of the meter's settings. For example, the exported settings file could be manipulated on the client computer, either by hand or by a configuration software, and then imported back into the meter. As another example, a webpage displayed by the meter's web server could use JavaScript or PHP to manipulate the settings file used by the meter.

Intelligent meters may need to store the measured readings for a period of time, often in a data structure called a log. As storage media get larger, more values can be stored, and for a longer period of time. However, there is still a limit on how much data can be stored. Unfortunately, the expectation of what can be stored often outpaces the actual space to store it in. Another problem that occurs when more data is stored is that it takes longer to find any single point in the data, as more entries need to be searched.

Many common systems exist to provide the ability to store information, however, many of them focus on either providing a relation between two entries, allowing entries to be modified frequently, or storing predefined data. Devices such as intelligent meters have a unique set of requirements:

-   -   Data is infrequently inserted, but often at an even interval.     -   Data is timestamped, and most often inserted in a linear order.         This means that the data is often added by appending after the         previous related entry. The result of this is that the data is         often sorted in time naturally.     -   The data requires very few, if any, updates to existing entries.     -   Requests to read the data are often infrequent, but often         require a large number of entries to be returned. However, this         can frequently be just a large portion of the larger Log, where         the location in the log may be changing all the time.     -   New sources of data could be added, or an old one removed, at         any time. Many devices solve this problem by forcing the Logs to         be cleared and reformatted, however this could lead to a loss of         data.

In one embodiment to meet these requirements, an IED of the present disclosure includes a logging module 1418 that employs a general purpose database 1800, such as relational databases like PostGreSQL, SQLite, or a custom database built for the purpose, and store the data for each data source, here called a channel, in a separate table 1804, as shown in FIG. 18. Employing a general purpose database 1800 provides the following advantages. First, segregating the channels from each other allows you to query just the data you are looking for, without requiring that the channels be hard coded, or uniform. Second, the table size is kept small, which minimizes the processing required to filter the records that are being requested. Thirdly, since each table is unique to a channel, extra information about which channel a record applies to need not be stored, which can save significant space when many records are stored.

It is to be appreciated that the term channel refers to any data item that can be logged. For example, volts AN may be a channel, but so could internal watt-hr readings, current time, processor usage, allocated memory, etc.

To index each of these channel tables 1804, a channel reference table 1802 is configured to indicate which table contains which channel. The channel reference table 1802 may also contain analysis information about each channel, such as the time range of the data contained within, to help optimize access to the data without hard coding what the channels contain.

The logging module 1418 may be further configured to analyze existing logs and to reduce the amount of space that the log takes when possible. In one embodiment, the logging module 1418 compresses each entry of the log, called a record, so as to reduce the size it takes. In another embodiment, the logging module 1418 combines records of a channel on a time range. For example, all the records for Volts AN for a single day could be combined into a single record, where a binary representation of each of the original records is stored in a single binary array of the resultant record. This results in an increase in speed querying records, as the number of records searched over would be reduced. Since the individual records in the binary array would be in a time sorted order, and a small search space, little performance hit would be seen parsing out the single records required. This also results in a decrease in the space required to store the records, as many databases require additional maintenance space for each record.

Combining records may be further improved by compressing the binary array stored in the combined record, further decreasing the space required, while only requiring a small speed hit decompressing the binary array when queried. The compression could be implemented by the logging module 1418 by compressing the data at the time of combining the records. The decompression could be implemented by a client at the time of request. The decompression could also be implemented by the data type of the database, expanding to fill the record set being returned to the application on request.

In another embodiment, the logging module 1418 may only combine the records after a period of time has elapsed, or the records are of a certain age, as shown in FIGS. 19 and 20. For example, the most recent month of records could be kept uncombined, and all records prior to that could be combined. This would allow faster and easier access to recent data, as it would not require reversing the combining. Referring to FIGS. 19 and 20, the logging module 1418 may be configured to periodically check the log data stored in the database, and combines records which are over a configured date range from the current date. Initially, in step 1902, the logging module 1418 queries the data tables 1804 to determine if any of the data is outside of a predetermined range, e.g., a particular month. If the data is within the predetermined range, step 1904, the logging module 1418 continues to monitor the data. If the data is not within the predetermined range, the logging module 1418 combines the data outside the predetermined range into a single block, step 1906. Next, in step 1908, the block is compressed and inserted as a record in the table 1804, step 1910. This data is then removed from the channel data, step 1912. As shown in FIG. 20, data table 1804 includes current data 1810, e.g., data with the predetermined range, and references to compressed data 1812. For the current data 1810, a time field 1814 indicates a time the data was recorded and a value field 1816 includes the recorded value. For the compressed data 1812, a time field 1814 indicates a range of the compressed data, e.g., the month of January, and a value field 1816 includes a reference to the compressed block 1818.

Additionally, the logging module 1418 may scan the records at the time of insert, and combine any uncombined records which are outside the current date range. Furthermore, this functionality may be implemented in the database engine itself, combining and uncombining the records transparently to the applications that read and write to the database. For example, this could be implemented as a custom data type that stores a time sorted array of values. As another example, this could be implemented as a custom action, such as a stored procedure, which performs the check and combine whenever records are inserted to the database. As another example, this could be implemented as a custom database table format, along with a custom interface to that table, that reads and writes the records appropriately.

Users often expect data to be available for the length of time that there is enough storage to hold. However, many devices require that their logs be cleared and reformatted if any changes were made to related settings. For example, many devices store their channels by combining each channel into a single record. If the list of channels that are being stored changes, this requires that the log be cleared and reformatted. If the user does not store the data locally, then the data is lost. Additionally, even if the user does store the data locally, they must then provide a way for that data to be transferred to other users, as they can no longer go to the device for the data.

On many devices, this problem is mitigated by the fact that the device only has a limited space in which to store records, often being exceeded before such configuration changes require action. With the space for long term storage however, this issue must be addressed. By storing log data where each channel is stored as it's own table, as described above, the need to change the format of the log when a channel is added or removed is eliminated.

A related issue to long term storage of reconfigured data is how to store and represent the data, when the configuration of how to interpret that data changes. For example, devices such as meters often have two versions of the voltage they measure: the primary value, which is presented to the user, and the secondary value, which is directly what the device reads. The primary value could be much higher then the device is capable of measuring, so the value is scaled down to the input range of the device, and a ratio, called the PT ratio, is applied to scale the value back up to the original range. If the secondary value is stored, and the PT ratio is changed, then the primary value may not be recoverable. As another example, users often want to see the energy values scaled with a certain number of decimal places, which is sometimes hard coded in the stored format of the energy.

In one implementation, the IED 1100 includes a formatting module 1420 configured to format measured and logged data. So that log values do not have to be cleared when settings are changed, the formatting module 1420 stores all values in the final format, such that even if the configuration of the device is changed, the values are still meaningful. For example, voltage could always be stored in primary. As another example, energy could always be stored as a binary number, scaled to units.

In another embodiment, the formatting module 1420 stores all values as text strings. This would easily allow the values to be of arbitrary resolution, though they would always be unit scaled. For example, voltage could be represented as “120.7”. As another example, 75.3 kilo-watt-hours could be represented as “75300”.

The formatting module 1420 may be further configured to keep track of the settings which relate to a channel, and then uniquely tie that to each value, such that the correct value could be reproduced when necessary. In one embodiment, the formatting module 1420 created a settings history table, which is referenced by the channel values. This has the added advantage of being able to view the history of settings in the device.

Users often want data to be presented to them in a specific format, which may not match the internal storage format. Therefore, the formatting module 1420 may be further configured to include conversion functionality, such that if the user asks for data in a specific format, the conversion functionality reformats the internal data into the requested format. Since only the one format is ever internally stored, no extra space is required. For example, the user could ask for a csv file with the log data, and the functionality could convert the internal database data into string timestamps and values, and return the requested file. In one embodiment, the formatting module 1420 includes an application for each format required, where each application would take as input the parameters of conversion, such as the channels required, and output a file in the new format. In a further embodiment, the formatting module 1420 may be configured to output the new format to an interface string buffer, called Standard Out, which another application could take as input, called Piping. These applications could then be called by UI applications, such as the web server application, to acquire and present the formatted data to the user.

The conversion could be further improved by adding value to the formatted data. The formatted data may be displayed in a graphical format, such as a graph. Another possible way to add value could be to analyze the data, and generate a report. Another possible way to add value could be to aggregate multiple channels together, to generate a new data set. For example, 2 pulse accumulators could be added together to give a 3rd accumulator value. As another example, a pulse accumulator could be subtracted from a energy accumulator, to give a 3rd accumulator value.

The conversion could be further improved by passing the formatted data to another application, that generates a report file in a more common format. For example, a csv file could be generated, then passed to an application that converts that data to a PDF report. As another example, the formatting module 1420 converts the internal data to a csv file. As another example, the formatting module 1420 generates a graph of a channel's value over time; this graph may be outputted as a picture file, or as a set of data that could be graphed by another application. As a further example, the formatting module analyzes the energy usage over time, applies a time of use rate structure to the interval energy usage, and outputs a file where the energy usage is aggregated and binned according to the rate structure. As yet another example, the formatting module 1420 analyzes the measured readings over time, and prepares a standards report, such as an EN50160 report. As another example, the formatting module 1420 analyzes the power quality recordings of the device over time, attempts to detect problems with the system that the device is measuring, and presents a report to help the user detect problems.

The use of the conversion to query data for the user could be further extended by dynamically generating the parameters to the conversion application from the UI. For example, the web server application 1408 may have a page that takes a dynamic parameter list as input to the page as part of the address. These parameters could then be passed to the conversion application. These parameters could include the channels to use, the date range to query, the format of the output.

In addition to channel data, the above mentioned techniques could also be applied to other logged values, such as power quality events, system logs, and waveform captures. In these cases, the data unique to that event is the ‘data’ of the channel described in the above techniques.

With multiple applications performing the analysis and storage of log data, it is important to know when that data should be stored, and to synchronize what data is stored. For example, an interval log may want to record every 15 minutes; if the data is recorded at 12:15:17, then it is late, and not valid. As another example, if a waveform event occurs, such as a sudden dip in the voltage measured, a power quality event may be recorded, as well as the waveform sample data, as well as the measured readings at the time of the event. If all these records do not refer to the same point in time, then the event cannot be fully analyzed.

The logging module 1418 is further configured to detect a system wide event, which the logging module 1418 wait on to record their data. In one embodiment, the logging module 1418 watches for such events, and when they occur, generates this event. When each individual logging application sees this event, they record their relevant data.

In another embodiment, this trigger may be caused by a user action, such as clicking a button on a web page. This user trigger may be configured to allow the user to specify a number of repeats, an interval between those repeats, a period in which to apply this logic, and a set of logic that would lead to that trigger occurring. For example, a trigger could be set up that performs a waveform capture every minute for 10 minutes. As another example, a trigger could be set up that triggers if a digital input reads 1, and voltage is above 130v, and its between the hours of 6 pm and 6 am.

Since the logging module 1418 may not have the ability to capture the relevant data before that data is replaced, the logging module 1418 will record the trigger of the event including the buffer index of the data in question. This way, each of the loggers can be synchronized in time. For example, if the watch application detects an event in data buffer 17, and when the logging applications go to record that data the current data buffer is 23, they can query the data from buffer 17 to be logged. The use of the buffer index could be improved by the logging applications also being able to query the buffers before and after the event's buffer index. This would allow logging applications to record information about a larger period of time. For example, a waveform logger could log the waveform samples from before and after the event, giving a picture of what led up to the event, and the after effects.

Users often use multiple browsers to view webpages, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Safari. As each of these browsers work differently, webpages that use JavaScript must often contain additional code to detect and work properly on each of these browsers. Additionally, the method of manipulating a webpage with JavaScript, which uses the webpage's DOM, or Document Object Model, is confusing, difficult to use, and can be error prone. Additionally, JavaScript provides poor support, which is often browser dependent, for processing data files transferred from the device.

One implementation is to configure a JavaScript library which extends and simplifies these tasks, on the webpages presented by the device's web server. For example, a JavaScript library could be used to read a list of waveform samples from the device, and another JavaScript library could be used to draw an oscilloscope of the waveform on the webpage. This has the added benefit of reducing the amount of data transferred from the device to the client, as a list of samples is smaller than a picture rendered on the server. As another example, a JavaScript library could be used to simplify the generation of tables of log records, including historical value records, system events, or power quality events. As another example, a JavaScript library could be used to periodically query for new data, and display that data live. As another example, a JavaScript library could be used to perform an asynchronous query of data, such as using Ajax, so the webpage could continue to be updated while the device transfers the data to the client.

One such library is jQuery, a multi-browser JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML. jQuery's syntax is designed to make it easier to navigate a document, select DOM elements, create animations, handle events, and develop Ajax applications. jQuery also provides capabilities to create plug-ins on top of the JavaScript library. This enables abstractions to be created for low-level interaction and animation, advanced effects and high-level, theme-able widgets. The modular approach to the jQuery library allows the creation of powerful dynamic web pages and web applications.

Another such library is Dojo Toolkit, a JavaScript framework targeting the many needs of large-scale client-side web development. For example, Dojo abstracts the differences among diverse browsers to provide APIs that will work on all of them (it can even run on the server under Node.js); it establishes a framework for defining modules of code and managing their interdependencies; it provides build tools for optimizing JavaScript and CSS, generating documentation, and unit testing; it supports internationalization, localization, and accessibility; and it provides a rich suite of commonly-needed utility classes and user-interface widgets.

Another such library is D3js and Protovis, JavaScript libraries to display digital data in dynamic graphical forms. Embedded within an HTML webpage, the JavaScript D3 js library uses pre-built JavaScript functions to select elements, create SVG objects, style them, or add transitions, dynamic effects or tooltips to them. These objects can also be widely styled using CSS. Large datasets can be easily bound to SVG objects using simple D3 functions to generate rich text/graphic charts and diagrams. The data can be in various formats, most commonly JSON, CSV or geoJSON, but, if required, JavaScript functions can be configured to read other data formats. The atomic concept of D3 design is to first use a CSS-style selector to select a given sets of DOM-nodes, then use operators to manipulate them in a similar manner to jQuery.

Many other such JavaScript libraries which provide webpage manipulation, data querying, and graphic drawing functions exist, and could also be used.

As stated above, the IEDs of the present disclosure, for example IED 1100, may be configured to provide more efficient update procedures for the firmware packages on an IED while decreasing any interruptions to the functionality of the IED during the update. Below, various techniques for updating the firmware packages of IEDs either via a remote server or through other methods are disclosed in greater detail in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In one embodiment, an IED, for example IED 1100, may run under a general purpose operating system (as described above in reference to previous embodiments). For example, the general purpose operating system used on the IED may be Linux operating system. Additionally, the firmware system on the IED has three layers: (1) low-level driver modules, (2) mid-level system libraries, and (3) high-level user application. The mid-level system library is developed as a Hardware Abstraction Layer (“HAL:), where the high-level user applications must call the mid-level system library to gain access to the IED's raw data. For example, in one embodiment, interface application 1206, described above and shown in FIG. 12, functions as the mid-level system library to bridge the hardware and the user applications on IED 1100.

One advantage in the presently described configuration is the IED's hardware can be changed and there will be minimal impact on the user applications. Additionally, the IED uses a modular design in the high-level user application layer. In other words, each application in the high-level user application layer will perform a specific task to minimize mutual dependency among modules. Therefore, installing or removing an application on the IED described in the present disclosure will, in most cases, not affect the other applications on the IED

As stated above, the three-layer firmware system is designed to minimize the firmware dependency between user applications on the IED In a preferred embodiment, the mid-level system library interface will be stable over the IED's lifetime. Furthermore, in the production phase, the mid-level system library will not change unless a major system upgrade is essential. If a change to the mid-level system library is made, it is recommended that the change is an incremental change through the addition of APIs (Application Program Interfaces). It is to be appreciated that the addition of APIs will make the system backward compatible.

To minimize mutual dependency between user level applications, in one embodiment, every application's runtime parameter is configured through its own XML configuration file. For example, in one embodiment, the IED includes an application (e.g., Modbus server) to respond to user requests from the Modbus channel. If the user wants to change the system time, the user can call the system library (e.g., interface 1206 shown in FIG. 12 and described above) of the securedOP API (e.g., security 1411 shown in FIG. 14 and described above) to change the system time. If the Modbus packages needs to be updated, the IED is configured to stop the Modbus server, install the updated Modbus package, and restart the Modbus server. From the prospective of the user using the IED, the user will only notice a brief service interruption (e.g., one or two seconds).

It is to be appreciated that in accordance with the current embodiment, there are three packages which differ from other applications: (1) the application monitor; (2) the data_server; and (3) the security_server. The application monitor is configured to start, stop, and monitor the health status (i.e., proper operation) of other applications that are running on the IED. It is to be appreciated that the application monitor may be the same as process management component 1108 described above and shown in FIG. 11. In one embodiment, if the application monitor is not operating properly, the IED is configured to reboot the system via a hardware watchdog (as described above). The data_server is configured to maintain a live data stream buffering from the DSP in the IED If the data_server is not operating properly, all other applications may have frozen data, or even stall if the applications call a wait_syc( ) function. In one embodiment, when the data_server is not operating properly, the IED is configured to restart the data_server, and the application monitor is configured to restart all other applications. The security_server is configured to check user permissions and perform pre-defined secured operation, including, but not limited to, firmware updates, changing of the system time, and the changing of programmable settings. It is to be appreciated that if the security server is not operating properly, the IED is configured to restart the security server while continuing to run any other currently running applications.

As will be described below, each installation package contains two scripts: an install.sh script and an unistnall.sh script in addition to the new files to be installed on the IED. In one embodiment, the IED includes an updater program that has the privilege to install and remove a package. It is to be appreciated that in some embodiments the updater program may be the same as update module 1410 in IED 1100. It is to be appreciated that the two scripts included in the installation package are human readable and contain information about the IED's internal file structure. Therefore, the installation package needs to be encrypted in the production phase. Furthermore, for security reasons, it is not desirable for the installation package to be altered by a third-party and allowed to be installed on the IED Therefore, in one embodiment, the updater program in the IED is configured to reject any installation packages that have been altered. As will be described below, the IED is configured with robust security measures to authenticate any installation package before the installation package is installed on the IED. The updater program will be described in greater detail below.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the IED is configured such that, when an update is installed, the executable binary of the update will not erase the existing data on the IED if the new binary can use the same data file or database. Therefore, the data and binary are separated into different packages, where the data package contains the basic data file folder or databases, and the binary package contains the execution and configuration XML, files. Alternatively, if the old data on the IED must be removed, the binary package installer script will include data backup operation procedures.

Furthermore, it is to be appreciated that each installation package shall include a removal script. Additionally, the updater program will be configured to conduct a dependency check in the server package list XML file. For example, let package A depend on package B. If a user wants to remove package B, the updater program is configured to recognize the dependency of package A on package B and to ask the user for confirmation to remove package A when package B is removed. Alternatively, if the user wants to install package A, the updater program is configured to recognize the dependency of package A on package B and to ask the user for confirmation to install package B in addition to package A. It is to be appreciated that, in some embodiments, this process can be configured to occur automatically (i.e., without the request for user confirmation to install or remove dependent packages) so that the installation process is not interrupted.

In the currently described embodiment of the present disclosure, new packages can be installed onto the IED in at least two ways: (1) production installation; or (2) remote update server installation. Production installation occurs when the IED is manufactured. During production installation, new packages are installed onto the IED's compact flash card via direct connection to an external production PC with a compact flash reader adapter.

Alternatively, after the production installation, the IED can be coupled to a network (such as networks 422, 522, or 622 described above and shown in FIGS. 4-6) and updated remotely over a network via a remote update server. In one embodiment, the updater program can be configured to check the remote update server for new packages and install the new firmware version if permitted. The IED includes a local package list file that lists all the installed packages. In one embodiment, local package list file may be /etc/update/local_package_list.xml. Below a sample local package list is shown in accordance with the present disclosure, where each package on the list includes a package name, version, date, and md5hex:

     <?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“utf-8”?>      <root><package  name=“ipswitch.led”  version=“0.01.002”  date=“2015/1/11 22:37:20.848” md5hex=“d8575e038371eea4117a3788a716879e” />      <package name=“appmon” version=“0.02.009” date=“2015/1/6 0:11:5.270”      md5hex=“48095ccbd84171f441778e8051684201” />      <package name=“security.server” version=“0.03.010” date=“2015/1/6 18:43:34.681”      md5hex=“4a489c5c4634baabdce6363c5b17ac1d” />      <package  name=“kool.phpsuite”  version=“trialversion_80”  date=“2015/1/6 20:44:43.532”      md5hex=“114356b5eddbc991b9d98feb1df20642” />      <package name=“web.pages” version=“0.02.004” date=“2015/1/6 20:58:14.153”      md5hex=“a7d7ba4c66710cffe21f09daf09ce60f” />      <package name=“corelog.data” version=“0.03.003” date=“2015/1/7 19:47:27.202”      md5hex=“349048c64acd6619667fa17800c94733” />      ....</root>

Furthermore, the remote update server includes a server_package_list.xml, which lists all the packages on the server that are available to be installed on the IED. Below, a sample server package list is shown, where each package in the list includes a package name, version, date, removable, size, md5hex, and file name:

       <root>      <package  name=“appmon”  version=“0.02.009”  date=“2015-01-05  10:00” removable=“no”    size=“54548”    md5hex=“48095ccbd84171f441778e8051684201” file=“appmon_0_02_009.pak”/>      <package  name=“lib.utilities”  version=“0.01.001”  date=“2014/12/31-18:00” removable=“no”    size=“136105”    md5hex=“ef79db280d64544bfc6751f6afe11cee” file=“lib_utilities_0_01_001.pak”/>      <package  name=“lib.user5”   version=“0.01.001”  date=“2014/12.31-13:45” removable=“yes”     size=“10649”     md5hex=“e030b3f3487815d269c3011f5c50c4f9” file=“lib_user5_0_01_001.pak”/>      .... </root>

It is to be appreciated that the “removable” attribute for each of the packages in the list shown above describes whether a package is necessary to the operation of the system on the IED and can be removed. For example, if a “no” appears next to the “removable” attribute, that package is necessary to the system and cannot be removed. However, even if a package cannot be removed, the user can update the package when a newer version becomes available. Alternatively, if a “yes” appears next to the “removable” attribute, that package can be removed as the package is not necessary to the system.

The updater program is configured such that it can check the local package list and the server package list to compare the lists. When comparing the two lists, the updater program can determine if the server package list has newer versions of the packages that are on the local package list (i.e., the packages on the IED). If the server package list has newer versions of the packages on the local package list, the updater program can update the packages on the local package list that are on the IED

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the updater program can be configured such that the user can issue commands to update the packages on the local package list of the IED For example, the commands the user can issue include, but are not limited to, update list, update, check update install xxx.xx, or update remove xxx.xx to list, check install and remove a package. For example, below a demonstrative usage of a user inputted command is shown. In the example below the user has inputted an “update list” command:

#>/root/update list Package names Server Version Local Version  ( 1) updater 0.1.1 0.1.1  ( 2) modules 0.1.0 0.1.0  ( 3) lib.system 0.04.0002 0.04.0002  ( 4) lighttpd.setup 1.4.31 1.4.31  ( 5) syslogd.setup 1.5.00 1.5.00  ( 6) program.setting 0.01.002 0.01.002  ( 7) data.server 0.04.0001 0.04.0001  ( 8) security.server 0.03.009 0.03.008 (x)  ( 9) appmon 0.02.005 0.02.005 ( 10) modbus.server 0.03.001 0.03.001 ( 11) trending.log 0.02.002 0.02.002 ( 12) limit.logger 0.02.001 0.02.001 ( 13) ipswitch.led 0.01.001 ( 14) web.pages 0.02.003 0.02.003

As shown above, the “update list” command yields a list of all the packages on the local package list and the server package list, so that the availability of newer packages can be identified to update the IED. As seen in the list above, the output of the “update list” command shows that the local version of package #8 “security.server” has an “x” next to it. The “x” is used to indicate that there is an available update for the package on the server. Furthermore, as seen above, package #13 is missing in the local installation. Therefore, after identifying that package #13 is missing, the user could choose to download this package as well.

Another usage of a user inputted command is shown below. In the example below, the user has inputted an “update check” command:

#>/root/update check Package names Server Version Local Version ( 1) security.server 0.03.009 0.03.008 name: security.server version: 0.03.009 filename: security_server_0_03_009.zip filesize: 547905 md5hex: d22deed5e0334c69a183cb6e24c9ccd4 description: security server and scripts file size 0 MD5hex=d22deed5e0334c69a183cb6e24c9ccd4/d22deed5e0334c69a183cb6e24c9cc d4

The “update check” command instructs the updater program to check the server package list for any available updates. If the updater program finds a package on the local package list that needs to updated, the updater program will automatically update the package. For example, as shown above, as a result of the “update check” command inputted, the security.server package is identified as needing an update and the update is automatically installed.

Additionally, the user can input a command to manually install a package. For example, in one embodiment, the command may be #>/root/update install ipswitch.led. Furthermore, the user can input a command to manually remove a package. For example, in one embodiment, the command may be #>/root/update remove ipswitch.led. It is to be appreciated that the commands described above are merely a subset all the possible commands that a user can input into the updater program in accordance with the present disclosure. Furthermore, it is to be appreciated that the updater program is configured such that inputted commands will only work if the inputted commands are received from a privileged user logging on to the IED Additionally, it is to be appreciated that, in some embodiments, user commands may be inputted remotely by a user via web server 1408 in IED 1100. Alternatively, the user command may be inputted by user directly on IED 1110 through command interface 1409 when the IED is in debug mode, or, during production, user command can be executed through SecuredOP APIs 1411.

Turning to FIGS. 21A-B, an exemplary folder structure 2102 for files on a remote server is shown in FIG. 21A and an exemplary folder structure 2150 for files on an IED is shown in FIG. 21B in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Folder structure 2102 includes folder 2104, where folder 2104 includes a URL that specifies a publicly accessible location of packages that can installed on an IED, such as IED 1100. It is to be appreciated that the packages made available via the URL stored in folder 2104 are encrypted to ensure only authorized users may make use of the packages. Folder structure 2102 also includes a configuration file 2108, where the configuration file 2108 includes a list of all the currently available packages for download. It is to be appreciated that the list in file 2108 may be an XML file (as described above), where the XML file includes information related to each package listed such as, but not limited to, the package name, version string, build date, dependency, checksum, a package file name. Example 2120 shows an exemplary XML file that may be included in file 2108, where the package name is “updater”, the version string is “0.2.1”, the build date is “2010/12/17 09:03:00.0000”, and the file name is “package.zip”.

It is to be appreciated that each package listed in configuration file 2108 may include a corresponding sub-folder 2106, where the name of the sub-folder 2106 is identical to the package name listed the configuration file 2108. For example, the name of the sub-folder 2106 of the exemplary package shown in example 2120 would be “updater.” It is also to be appreciated that each sub-folder 2106 may include several version folders 2110, where the version folder name is identical to the version string in the configuration folder 2108. For example, the version folder name of the version folder 2110 of the exemplary package shown in example 2120 would be “0.2.1”. It is to be appreciated that each version folder 2110 within a given sub-folder 2106 represents a different version of package corresponding to the sub-folder 2106.

Each version folder 2110 includes an encrypted package file 2116. As described above, each package 2116 listed in configuration file 2108 includes an installation script 2112, a removal script 2114, and the files 2118 to be installed as part of the package file 2116. It is to be appreciated that the name of each package file 2116 is the same as the package file name listed in configuration folder 2108. For example, the package file name of the package file 2116 corresponding to the exemplary package shown in example 2120 would be “package.zip”. It is to be appreciated that if the naming convention for sub-folder 2106, configuration folder 2108, and version folder 2110 is used, a client device (e.g., IED 1110) attempting to access a remote server hosting packages can locate a given package directly using the package name, version string, and package file name included in the XML file in configuration folder 2108.

Turning to FIG. 21B, a file structure 2150 that is included in an IED, such as IED 1100, is shown in accordance with the present disclosure. The IED may include an updater program 2152, which is configured to check for updates for packages installed on the IED, where the updated packages are on a remote server, as described above. It is to be appreciated that, in some embodiments, the updater program may be the same as update module 1410 in IED 1100. Furthermore, it is to be appreciated that updater program 2152 is configured to output a web friendly JSON file 2156, which can be stored in a web server (for example, in any one of the servers described above) accessible folder. The JSON file 2156 can be then read by the web site to display package update information to a privileged meter user. For example, the information shown to a privileged meter user may be the same as what is shown above when the user inputs an “update list” command.

Updater program 2152 is configurable via configuration file 2158, where configuration file 2158 is included in configuration folder 2154. It is to be appreciated that configuration folder 2154 is configured such that configuration folder 2154 can only be accessed by authorized applications and users. Configuration folder 2154 also includes a local package list file 2162, where file 2162 includes a list of all the locally installed packages on the IED. File 2162 includes information related to the packages installed on the IED, such as, but not limited to, the package names, version string name, build date, and checksum. In some embodiments, folder 2162 may be an XML, folder. For example, an exemplary XML, folder is that may be included in folder 2162 is shown in example 2164.

The presently described IED also includes a temporary folder 2160. Temporary folder 2160 may be used by updater program 2152 to temporarily store newly downloaded packages (found on the remote server), so that the newly downloaded packages may be installed onto the IED It is to be appreciated that temporary folder 2160 is also configurable through the configuration file 2158.

Turning to FIG. 22, a flowchart illustrating a method 2200 for updating an IED is shown in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. It is to be appreciated that method 2200 may be used with any IED that is coupled to a network and includes the updater program 2152 described above. For example, the method 2200 may be used with any one of IEDs 410, 412, 414, that are coupled to network 422, IEDs 510, 512, 514 that are coupled to network 522, and IEDs 610, 612, 614 that are coupled to network 622, or IED 1100. Furthermore, it is to be appreciated that, in some embodiments, the updater program may be the same as update module 1410 described previously in the present disclosure.

Initially, the updater program 2152 in the IED will receive a request to install a package, in step 2202. It is to be appreciated that the request may be sent to the IED via a computer coupled to the IED remotely through a network as described previously in the present application. When the updater program 2152 receives a request to install a package, the updater program 2152 will check if the package name is available on the remote server's package list 2108, in step 2204. It is to be appreciated that the remote server package list 2108 may be any one of servers 424, 440, 524, 540, and/or 640 from the embodiments described above. If, the updater program 2152 determines that the package name that was requested to be installed on the IED is not on the remote server's package list 2108 in step 2206, the updater program 2152 will discontinue communication with the remote server and provide the user with an error message, in step 2208. It is to be appreciated that the message may be provided to the user by displaying the message on the IED and/or displaying the message on the computer the user is using that is coupled to the IED via a network.

Alternatively, if the updater program 2152 determines that the package name that was requested to be installed on the IED is on the remote server's package list 2108 in step 2206, the updater program 2152 will then check if the package has a dependency on any other packages, in step 2210. It is to be appreciated that the updater program 2152 can check for any dependencies by checking the remote server package list 2108, which will include information pertaining to any existing dependencies. If the updater program 2152 determines that the package has dependency on any other packages in step 2212, the updater program 2152 will call install( ) recursively to install the dependent package, in step 2214. Then, the updater program 2152 will check the package name of the requested package in the remote server package list 2108, in step 2204. Ultimately, the updater program 2152 will return to step 2212 and determine that all dependent packages have been installed and the updater program will continue to step 2216.

Alternatively, if the updater program 2152 determines that the package does not have any dependencies on other packages in step 2212, the updater program 2152 will download the package from the remote server, in step 2216. After downloading the package, the updater program 2152 will decrypt the downloaded package, in step 2218. It is to be appreciated that within the decrypted package, there is a package header. The package header contains essential identifying information for each package, such as, but not limited to, package name, size, version, and checksum. It is to be appreciated that the package header will be discussed in greater detail below.

After the downloaded package has been decrypted, the updater program 2152 will determine if the decrypted package is authentic, in step 2220. To determine the authenticity (i.e., the package hasn't been altered) of the decrypted package, the updater program 2152 will read the package header information for the decrypted package and compare it to the information on the remote server's package list 2108 to authenticate downloaded package (as will be described in greater detail below). If the updater program 2152 determines that the decrypted package is not authentic, the updater program 2152 will provide an error message to the user, in step 2208. Alternatively, if the updater program 2152 determines that the decrypted package is authentic (i.e., the information in the header information matches the information on the remote server's package list 2108), then the updater program 2152 will unpack (i.e., unzip) the decrypted package onto a temporary location 2160 on the IED in step 2222, and run the installation script (i.e., install.sh), in step 2224.

After the package is installed, the updater program 2152 will delete the temporary folder 2160 (i.e., the folder created when the decrypted package was unpacked), in step 2226. Then, the updater program 2152 will update the local package list 2162, in step 2228, on the IED to reflect the version of the package that was installed during method 2200. It is to be appreciated that, in some embodiments, the updater program 2152 in the IED may be configured to auto-update any installed packages. When the auto-update feature is enabled, the updater program 2152 will check for any newer versions of the packages installed on the IED that become available on the remote server package list 2108. The updater program 2152 will check for newer versions of the packages installed on the IED by comparing the information stored in the local package list 2162 with the information stored in the remote server package list 2108, as described above. If the updater program 2152 finds newer versions of the packages on the remote server package list 2108, the updater program 2152 can automatically install these newer packages on the IED

It is to be appreciated that to make sure that any new packages to be installed on the IED are properly installed, the newly installed packages must be copied to the correct location on the IED, the installed packages must be set to the correct permissions, and the installed packages must be set to the correct ownership. Furthermore, it is to be appreciated that if the application pertaining to a package to be installed is already running on the IED when it is time to install the package, the installation script 2112 and the updater program 2152 are configured to stop the application or package from running, install the application or package, and then restart the application package after installation.

Below, an example of an installation script trending log is shown. The trending log illustrates that all the trending loggers (e.g., application 1418 in IED 1100 described above) are stopped by the application monitor in the IED, and then a new trending log is copied, and the ownership and permission are set. After the installation is complete, the trending loggers are restarted.

   #!/bin/sh # #tlogger v0.03.0003 installer # INSTALL_PATH=/home/test TEMP_PATH=/tmp/temp APPMON=/root/appmon mkdir -p $INSTALL_PATH $APPMON/stop_corelog.sh ... unzip -o $TEMP_PATH/tlogger.zip -d $INSTALL_PATH/ chown -R test:test $INSTALL_PATH chmod 750 $INSTALL_PATH/tlogger $APPMON/start_corelog.sh ....    Below, examples of removal script and uninstall script trending logs are #!/bin/sh # #tlogger v0.03.0003 uninstaller # INSTALL_PATH=/home/test TEMP_PATH=/tmp/temp APPMON=/root/appmon $APPMON/stop_corelog.sh .... if [ -e $INSTALL_PATH/tlogger ]; then  rm -f $INSTALL_PATH/tlogger fi

It is to be appreciated that during the development phase, the installation script 2112 and removal script 2114 can be compressed into a .zip file. However, in the production phase, any packages that are to be installed onto the IED must be encrypted. For example, in some embodiments the packages are encrypted as .pak files with private key to protect the IED from potential attackers. The .pak files are created by a Openssl tri-des encryption algorithm with a private key pair. In some embodiments, the private key pair is hardcoded in a package preparation program. The package preparation program is configured to run on a Linux PC and convert packages from a .zip format to a .pak format.

In one embodiment, the header is encrypted into the .pak file together with the .zip file. When the updater program 2152 decrypts the package in step 2218 of method 2200, the updater program 2152 will first load the header to check if the decrypted the md5, name, and version of the package is the same as the one listed on the remote server package list 2108. If any of the md5, name, and/or version does not match the one listed on the remote server package list 2108, the updater program 2152 will provide an error message (i.e., step 2208) and the updater program 2152 will not perform any more function.

It is to be appreciated that the openSSL_triDes_test can also convert a .pak file back to the .zip file. An example command is shown below:

      #>./openSSL_triDes_test  -m  1  -s   data_server_0_04_025.pak   -d data_server_0_04_025.zip

As stated above, the updater program 2152 can be configured to automatically update the packages installed on the IED when newer versions of the packages become available on the remote server package list 2108. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, a process scheduler script can be installed on the IED and configured to run an “update check” command (as described above) at predefined time intervals (for example, every 6 hours). In this way, the updater program 2152 will keep all packages installed on the IED up to date with the versions that become available on the remote server package list 2108.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, a push mode operation may be introduced so the user can manually update the packages installed on the IED when newer versions of the packages become available on the remote server package list 2108. When the push mode firmware update is installed in the IED, the user will have the ability to run a Modbus request to a specific IED to run the “update check” (as described above) through a special SSL port or communication software.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, an IED, such as IED 10 or 1100 described above, is configured such that the firmware of the IED can be updated (for example, via updater program 2152) by a processor of the IED (e.g., CPU 50) while the IED is still running. The processor of the IED is configured to simultaneously store one or more previously installed versions of a firmware and a current version of a firmware on a memory of the IED (e.g., memory 20). Furthermore, the processor of the IED is configured to revert to previous versions of the firmware after a current version of the firmware is installed on the IED if the processor of the IED determines there is a problem or error associated with the current version of the firmware. In another embodiment, the processor of the IED may be configured to download a desired version (e.g., either the same version or a previous known good version) of the firmware from a remote server if the processor determines that there is an error with the current version of the firmware. Additionally, the processor of the IED is configured to allow a user to downgrade the firmware on the IED manually (e.g., by sending a command to the IED). It is to be appreciated that these features will be described in greater detail below.

In another embodiment, a processor of the IED, such as IED 10 or 110, stores, at manufacturing time, at least three identical copies of the firmware on a memory of the IED The processor of the IED may be configured to compute a checksum for each copy of the firmware to determine if each copy has a good or valid checksum based on a comparison of the computed checksum for each copy to a stored checksum value in a memory of the IED In one embodiment, the processor is configured to use the first copy of the firmware that the processor of the IED determines has a good or valid checksum based on a comparison to the stored checksum. One of the three firmware copies is designated by the processor of the IED as a permanent copy or default firmware, which means the processor of the IED is configured such that the default firmware cannot be changed, deleted or replaced. The default firmware will always contain the firmware programmed in the IED at manufacturing time. As firmware of the IED is upgraded/updated to a newer version of the firmware by the processor of the IED, the processor is configured to overwrite one of the two remaining copies of the firmware stored in the memory of the IED with the newer version of the firmware. In one embodiment, the processor of the IED is configured to choose the older version of the firmware of the two remaining copies of the firmware to be overwritten in the memory of the IED, such that every time a new version of the firmware is installed in the IED, the processor of the IED alternates which of the two remaining copies (i.e., the copies other than the designated default firmware) are updated/upgraded to the newer version of the firmware. In this way, in this embodiment, at any moment the IED has the default firmware (i.e., the version of the firmware installed at manufacturing), the currently used firmware (i.e., the newest version of the firmware installed on the IED) and the previous firmware (i.e., the version of the firmware that was installed before the newest version of the firmware). In the embodiment described above, it is to be appreciated that the IED may be configured to store any number of copies of the firmware, where one copy is a default copy and any number of previous versions (e.g., 3, 4, 5, etc.) of the firmware are stored in the memory of the IED.

In another embodiment, a processor of the IED, such as IED 10 or 110, stores at least three identical copies of a version of the firmware on a memory of the IED at all times. The processor of the IED may be configured to compute a checksum for each copy of the firmware to determine if each copy has a good or valid checksum, as described above. The processor is configured to use the first copy of the firmware that the processor of the IED determines has a good or valid checksum based on a comparison to the stored checksum. In a further embodiment, the processor of the IED may be configured to require a determination that at least two copies (or at least three copies, etc.) pass the checksum comparison test to allow the IED to use the firmware.

In either of the two embodiments described above (i.e., where multiple different versions of a firmware are stored in a memory of the IED and/or where multiple identical copies of the same version of the firmware are stored in the memory of the IED), if the processor determines that none of the stored copies of the firmware pass the checksum comparison, the processor may be configured to automatically retrieve (e.g., via updater program 2152) a desired version of the firmware (being either the same version or a different version than the one tested by the processor) from another computing device (e.g., a server, such as the remote server described above in relation to FIG. 21A, including various versions of the firmware available for download). In another embodiment, the remote device may be configured to periodically push firmware updates to the IED without the IED having to request updates for the firmware.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, a boot firmware or other firmware is installed on the IED to test the sanity, integrity, and/or authenticity of the run firmware (program and data areas) during a boot up or start up mode of the IED before control of the IED is passed to the run firmware. Additionally, the boot firmware is configured to perform run firmware upgrades/downgrades through commands coming from the run firmware or from an external computing device (e.g., via updater program 2152 or via a remote computer issuing commands to the IED), using the firmware flashing system as a source of the flashing data. These processes may be done through the boot or other firmware or through a separate process which is contemplated to be within the scope of the present disclosure.

It is to be appreciated that in one embodiment, the boot firmware is stored in a boot flash or memory 51 of IED 10 and the run firmware is stored in a run flash or memory 53 of IED 10, where boot flash 51 and run flash 53 are each included in a flash memory of CPU 50. The IED 10 is configured such that when a new version of a firmware is downloaded (e.g., via updater program 2152) by CPU 10, the new version of the firmware (and, in some embodiment, several copies of the new version of the firmware) is stored along with previous versions of the firmware in non-volatile memory 20. CPU 50 of IED 10 is configured to test the sanity, integrity, and/or authenticity of the run firmware before control of the IED 10 is passed to the run firmware (i.e., before the run firmware is executed). As stated above, in some embodiments, one or more copies of a firmware may be downloaded and stored in non-volatile memory in accordance with the present disclosure. In another embodiment, CPU 50 is configured to determine if there is an error associated with a firmware (e.g., run firmware to be executed by CPU 50) whenever the IED is restarted or goes through a boot up or start up mode before executing the firmware.

When the boot firmware takes control of the IED's system (e.g., by means of hard reset or run callback (i.e., a command from the run firmware calling back the boot firmware), the boot firmware has two execution phases: (1) The start-up phase; and (2) the stay-loop phase. It is to be appreciated that these phases will be described in greater detail below.

In the start-up phase, initialization of basic variables and used peripherals takes place. It is to be appreciated that only peripherals that are going to be used will be initialized during the start-up phase. Furthermore, it is to be appreciated that during the start-up phase the communication ports (such as communications 24) and related peripherals of the IED are not modified, unless the reset reason is a power up reset, in such a case, they are initialized with default values.

After initialization of the basic variables and the peripherals that will be used, the transfer block is read. It is to be appreciated that the transfer block is a logical entity. The transfer block is an area of a non-volatile memory on the IED, such as non-volatile memory 20, where the area is divided into logical blocks and fields. Additionally, the transfer block contains important information for the progress of the start-up phase. For example, the transfer block may contain a command issued by the run firmware, firmware file information, the state of the system, and error codes. It is to be appreciated that if the boot firmware determines the transfer block is bad (e.g., corrupted) the boot firmware is configured such that it will transmit a message to the user (e.g., via communication interface 24) informing the user that the IED needs a repair or servicing.

While the boot firmware initializes, the boot firmware performs quick checks of the peripherals of the processor on the IED and some external devices. The boot firmware tests the serial peripheral interface (SPI), internal RAM, universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART), general purpose input/output (GPIO), ferroelectric RAM (FRAM), two Flash-Chips, and for external RAM modules or any other circuits as necessary. It is to be appreciated that the results of the test performed by the boot firmware are stored in the transfer block every time the boot firmware finishes its initialization. In this way, the test results are available to the run firmware right upon startup if one of the peripheral checks has failed.

After the basic initialization takes place, in one embodiment, a processor of the IED, such as CPU 50, is configured to also initialize the display on the IED and basic information about the version, firmware file states (analyzed from the non-volatile memory 20 and the run flash 53), and current actions are displayed on the IED Additionally, the Modbus handler or other protocol for communication is also enabled. After the Modbus handler or other protocol for communication is enabled, the boot firmware checks for the run-to-boot command. If the boot firmware determines that there is no valid command from the run firmware or an external pc (e.g., a command to upgrade firmware of the IED to a new version) requiring the IED to remain in boot, the boot firmware decides that the run firmware had no intention to pass the control to the boot firmware, therefore, the boot firmware will take action based on the source of the reset (e.g., where the source or reason for the reset may be a power up sequence, reset of IED, etc.) In other words, if the boot firmware determines that there is no reason for the IED to remain in boot, then the boot firmware is configured to either go to run (if the run firmware is determined to be healthy by the boot firmware) or take other appropriate action (like reflashing or rebooting, as will be described in greater detail below). It is to be appreciated that there are one or more possible reasons that a reset may occur. First, a reset may occur if the boot firmware gained control because a power-up sequence took place. In this case, the boot firmware will examine the firmware in the execution area of the processor in the IED If the boot firmware determines that there are no errors associated with the execution area, the boot firmware transfers control to the run firmware. Second, a reset may occur if the boot firmware gained control because the reset line in the IED was asserted. If the boot firmware gained control because the reset line in the IED was asserted, the boot firmware is configured to assume that a watchdog component (described below) of the IED kicked, taking the IED out of a hang condition. Then, the boot firmware will write a message that is stored in the transfer block indicating a problem occurred. This message will allow the run firmware to know that a problem occurred, and then the boot firmware will transfer control to the run firmware if the run firmware is ok.

For example, the watchdog component described above, may be watchdog component 17 of IED 10 (shown in FIG. 1). Watchdog 17 is configured to send a reset signal to CPU 50 to reset IED 10 if watchdog 17 determines an error has occurred with a component of IED 10 or if IED 10 is being powered up or reinitialized. In one embodiment, the watchdog is configured to sense if the voltage of the CPU 50 has sagged (indicating a corruption of a component of IED 10) and will send a reset signal to CPU 50 to reset IED 10. Furthermore, the watchdog 17 is configured to determine if CPU 50 is in a hang condition or is irresponsive and the watchdog 17 may reset IED 10. For example, in some embodiments, CPU 50 is configured to periodically send a signal, called a “watchdog kick”, to watchdog 17 to indicate CPU 50 is running without error. As long as watchdog 17 is receiving the watchdog kick signal, watchdog 17 remains idle. However, if CPU 50 hangs or becomes irresponsive, the watchdog kick will not be issued by CPU 50. If watchdog 17 does not receive a watchdog kick by CPU 50 within a predetermined period of time, watchdog 17 determines that an error has occurred with CPU 50 and watchdog 17 will reset IED 10. In some embodiments, watchdog 17 may be included within CPU 50. In some embodiment, watchdog 17 may be separately coupled to any of the other components of IED 10 to monitor the activity of the other components and detect any errors occurring.

Another reason a reset may occur is if the boot firmware gained control from the run firmware. If the boot firmware gained control from the run firmware, a command must be valid in the transfer block. If a command is not valid in the transfer block, as stated above, the boot firmware will assume that the Watchdog kicked, taking the IED out of a hang condition, and the boot firmware will write a message that is stored in the transfer block indicating a problem occurred. Alternatively, if there is a valid command in the transfer block, the command will be executed and the control may be transferred back to the run firmware depending on the command, as will be described in greater detail below.

In the stay loop phase, when the command action is requested by the run firmware, or, alternatively, if there is no valid firmware in the executable section of the processor in the IED, the boot firmware will pause the boot for a predetermined amount of time and wait to receive a command in the communication ports. If the boot firmware does not receive a command within a predetermined amount of time, the boot firmware will initiate an auto-reset of the IED.

It is to be appreciated that if the boot firmware has paused the boot (i.e., the start-up sequence of the IED) because the firmware in the execution section (e.g., run flash 53) of the processor (e.g., CPU 50) is bad, the boot firmware will re-check the run firmware on the processor at predetermined periodic intervals (e.g., every 3 seconds) to determine if a temporary failure occurred (e.g., caused by improper power startup or EFT). It is to be appreciated that the boot firmware is configured such that a predetermined number of re-checks will be performed before a self-reset of the IED is performed. For example, in one embodiment, 25 attempts to re-check the firmware on the processor of the IED are performed, before a self-reset of the IED is performed. If, after successive tests, the same errored result is obtained (discarding any temporary anomaly or problem) the boot firmware will conclude that the run firmware is no longer valid, and it will auto-issue a flash request in such a way, that the last known firmware from non-volatile storage 20 will be taken and flashed into the run flash 53, allowing the IED to get in service again.

Alternatively, if the boot firmware has paused the boot because a command received by the boot firmware prompted the boot firmware to pause the boot, the boot firmware is configured to pause the boot for a predetermined amount of time. In one embodiment, the predetermined amount of time that the boot firmware is configured to pause the boot because of a command is 20 seconds. If, during the time intervals that the boot firmware has paused the boot, the boot firmware does not receive a communication, the boot firmware is configured to pass control to the run firmware, unless the run firmware is not ok.

It is to be appreciated that, in some embodiments, interlocks are spread throughout the code of the boot firmware to make the boot firmware more reliable. The interlocks assure that a specific sequence of operations will be performed for flashing actions. In one embodiment, a single variable and a Cyclic Redundancy Check 32 bits (CRC 32) polynomial direct sequence function is used by a processor of the IED, such as CPU 50 of IED 10, to increment the interlock variable, which is checked by the processor of the IED at every critical point within the code of the boot firmware. When a command action is requested by the run firmware, or, alternatively, if there is no valid firmware in the executable section of the processor in the IED, the boot firmware will pause the boot for a predetermined amount of time and wait to receive a command in the communication ports (e.g., communication interface 24 of IED 10). If the boot firmware does not receive a command in the communication ports before the predetermine amount of time has expired, the boot firmware will perform an auto reset of the IED It is to be appreciated that the boot firmware may be configured to perform other actions upon failure to switch to run, for example, sending an e-mail (e.g., via communication interface 24) to a user indicting the failure, tripping a relay contact, displaying the failure on the display of the IED (e.g., via multimedia interface 22), sending an audible alarm (e.g., via speakers of the IED), or any other similar type event.

It is to be appreciated that the boot firmware is configured such that every time the boot firmware is about to pass the control of the IED to the run firmware in the execution part of the processor in the IED, the boot firmware performs a CRC32 or other type of checksum on the run firmware that is about to be executed by the processor of the IED to ensure there are no errors with the run firmware before the processor of the IED executes the run firmware. If the boot firmware determines that there is an error associated with the run firmware, the boot firmware is configured to revert to a previous known good version of the run firmware stored in a memory of the IED, such as memory 20, and flash the previous known good version of the run firmware to a processor of the IED (e.g., CPU 50). In another embodiment, the boot firmware may be configured to retrieve a previous known good version of the run firmware from a remote computing device (e.g., a remote server, another IED, etc.) to flash the previous known good version of the run firmware to the processor of the IED The boot firmware may then be configured to reboot the IED and determine if there is an error with the previously known good version of the run firmware flashed to the processor before passing control to the previously known good version of the run firmware.

In one embodiment, the polynomial used in the CRC32 is 0x04C11DB7, which is the standard IEEE CRC-32-bit polynomial. Additionally, in some embodiments, separate tests are performed for the run firmware (i.e., ExecCode) and the data firmware (DataCode) in the execution section of the processor of the IED. The boot firmware is configured such that the run firmware and the data firmware each need to pass their respective tests for the boot firmware to transfer the control to the run firmware.

It is to be appreciated that the CRC 32 is used by the processor of the IED (e.g., CPU 50) to validate the integrity of the firmware data stored in either of flash 51, 53 (i.e., the boot and run firmware) or any other memory of the IED. The CRC 32 is performed on a firmware by a processor of the IED to obtain a unique value or result. This unique value is compared to a known value (e.g., stored in a memory of the IED), where the known value is a value obtained by performing the CRC 32 on a copy of the firmware that is known to be authentic. By comparing the known or stored value to the value obtained, the integrity of the firmware tested can be verified (i.e., that there is no error associated with the firmware) if both values are found to be matching by the processor of the IED

The CRC32 is also used for testing the files in the firmware file area. There are two check levels. The first level is checked during the IED startup in all three firmware file slots, as will be described in greater detail below. The second level is executed only when flashing one of the firmware files to the IED. In some embodiments, the first check level only checks the first 256 bytes of the firmware file. It is to be appreciated that the first 256 bytes of the firmware file includes information about the size of the firmware, file, the checksums, the version, etc. The boot firmware uses this information to determine if the run firmware is valid or if there is an error associated with the run firmware. The second check level is performed on the fly as it is read from the massive storage device (flash-chip) before flashing the run firmware. If the run firmware passes the second check level, the flashing action takes place and once it finishes, a new check is performed on the flashing area. If no CRC32 fails occurred before and after the flashing, the boot firmware will decide the operation was valid (i.e., there are no errors associated with the firmware). A CRC32 is used herein for exemplary purposes only, it is to be appreciated that other forms of checksum are contemplated to be within the scope of the present disclosure.

It is to be appreciated that the WatchDog (described above) is active in all of the boot firmware code. The WatchDog is only kicked in the beginning of the main loop so that the WatchDog can detect if the boot firmware hangs in any function occurring within the main loop. It is to be appreciated that the WatchDog is used when the auto-reset of the IED is needed due to boot time.

It is to be appreciated that the boot firmware may use many different communication protocols. For example, in one embodiment, the boot firmware uses Modbus RTU as its communication protocol. Furthermore, it is to be appreciated that, in some embodiments, the series communication format is 8N1, and the default speed is 9600. In some embodiments, the speed can be changed via serial Modbus commands to up to 576000 bps or higher. In one embodiment, when a network card is coupled to the communication port, the boot firmware is configured to switch the speed automatically to match the speed on the network card.

It is to be appreciated that, in some embodiments, the boot firmware code acts as a slave, and commands received by the boot firmware are only specific value written into specific register on the map. Most of the commands received by the boot firmware are performed immediately and the Modbus reply reports the success or the failure of the command. However, some commands, such as, but not limited to, “go to run” or “compute Run CRC32,” are executed after the reply is sent, to avoid a Modbus timeout because such commands can consume a lot of time. For example, some communication functions are “serial.c”, “Modbus.c”, and “requests.c” files.

It is to be appreciated that there are two types of commands, and the command type depends on how the command is issued. The first type of command is a run command, where a run command is a command issued from the run firmware. A run command is issued through the transfer block described above (i.e., is saved to the transfer block and then read by the boot firmware during the boot). The second type of command is a Modbus command which is issued by an external entity. A Modbus command is issued by writing specific Boot-Modbus register through Modbus communication. It is to be appreciated that Modbus commands and Modbus protocol are used herein for illustrative purposes and that other protocols and/or logic schemes are contemplated to be within the scope of the present disclosure.

As described above, the transfer block is used to transfer data between the run firmware and the boot firmware. In the transfer block, there is a field to be filled with a command code, where the command code is executed by the boot firmware when the boot firmware receives the control from the run firmware. Furthermore, if the command includes any parameters, the parameters are also stored in the transfer block. It is to be appreciated that the transfer block is protected with a CRC checksum.

Below an exemplary list of run commands is shown in accordance with the present disclosure:

Command Code Descriptions None 0x00 No command. The Boot will understand no action is necessary. Stay 0x01 The Run asks the Boot to stay, even if firmware is ok. The purpose of this is to allow external communication to be established between user a Boot, to perform further actions. Flash 0x02 The Run asks the Boot to flash a new firmware file into the execution are of the Chip. The new firmware is taken from the firmware file system, and all the parameters necessary for this action are set up by the Run prior to calling the Boot back. HandError 0x03 The Run asks the Boot to do a clean restart, because it was able to detect a run-time problem. The Boot goes immediately to Run. RamTest 0x04 The Run asks the Boot to perform a Ram test. The Ram test is performed until a system reset (power cycle) and their progress is show on screen Crash 0x05 The Boot has gained control because the WatchDog reset. This means the Run was not able to kick the Watchdog on time because Run crashed or something in the Run firmware held the processing for too long. The Boot will note this in the Transfer Block (so the Run will be aware of this situation) and pass the control to the Run again.

The Modbus commands are performed by writing a specific Modbus register during the boot up phase. It is to be appreciated that the Modbus map in the boot firmware is different from the Modbus map in the run firmware. Prior to write the Command code, all needed parameters must be written in the parameters register. The Engage command is performed immediately upon reception, and the others are executed after the Modbus reply to write is sent. The execution of some commands may take a while, like the Test and Flash commands. The result of the execution is also found in a register in the Modbus. It is to be appreciated that in order to execute other commands but Engage, the Engage Command must be issued first to the IED.

Below an exemplary list of Modbus commands is shown in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure:

Command Code Descriptions Engage 0x0201 This is the first command that has to be issued to the unit in Boot mode, to gain exclusive control of it and to allow execution the other commands. Once the Boot receives this command, it will stop listening other communication ports, but the one if received the command from. ReBoot 0x0055 This command makes the Unit restart fresh. The Boot after start up and firmware check (if ok), will transfer the control to the Run normally. GotoRun 0x0712 This command asks the Boot to test the execution are on the chip, and if the firmware is valid (passes the check), it will transfer the control to the Run. Retest 0x5240 This command asks the Boot to re-test the peripheral and Devices external devices. Result is placed in the Transfer Block and in the result register. Test Fw 0x54C4 This command asks the Boot to test - deeply - the 3 possible Files firmware files in the firmware file system. This command takes some time because the 3 files have to be read and their CRC32 computed. At the end, the result is placed in the result register, and the screen shows a summary of the status for each of the 3 firmware slots. Additionally, the result is also copied to the Transfer Block so the Run firmware is aware of this test. Flash 0x4681 When this command is sent to the Boot, it will try to flash the Factory Firmware slot#0, into the execution area of the chip. The Slot #0 is fixed with the original firmware deployed in the unit at the fabrication time. So the original firmware will be restored in the unit. Flash Fw #1 0x4686 The Boot is asked to flash the Slot#1 firmware file. If the user performed an upgrade procedure in Run, the firmware Slot #1 and #2 are loaded with the transferred firmware. By default, the slot #1 and #2 are programmed with the original firmware, so there is always a valid firmware in the slots. Flash Fw #2 Ox46A4 The Boot is asked to flash the Slot#2 firmware file.

It is to be appreciated that the Modbus map of the IED while executing the boot firmware is different than when the IED is executing the run firmware. Below the Modbus register map of the IED while executing the boot firmware is shown in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure:

Modbus Register Map for Shark250/270 Boot Firmware Register Start Start in Num of Name Address hex Mode Regs De scription Notes Unit Name 0 0x0000 RO 8 16-character string for device name. For Shark250 the string is “E169 Boot”. For Shark270 the string is “E159 Boot”. Characters are read in bigendian format within a register and padded with zero bytes Unit SN 8 0x0008 RO 8 16-character string for device serial number. The string is obtained from the first 16 bytes of the on-board eeprom. Characters are reads in bigendian format. Boot 16 0x0010 RO 2 4-character string for the boot version. Characters are Version read in bigendian format within a register. Boot 22 0x0016 RO 1 This register is contains boot status information 2 Status in the for of bit fields: MMRRDD-EEEETPPP, where MM = meter status, RR & DD run and data blocks status, EEEE = last error, T = toggle comm bit and PPP = attached port. See Note (2) Boot 4499 0x1193 RO 1 This is a register with status information, ment to Status2 be used only for option boards attached to the unit. This way the option boards become aware of the status of the unit (In boot mode). Boot 4500 0x1194 RO 1 This is a register with status information, ment to be Status3 used only for option boards attached to the unit. This way the option boards become aware of the status of the unit (In boot mode). Boot 8192 0x2000 WO 1 This register is used to send commands to the boot 6 Command firmware. Just write the command value into this register. Last Error 8194 0x2002 RO 1 Last error, which was reported by a command. 3 Test 8195 0x2003 RO 1 Result of the device-test. Reports error on communicating 4 Result with RAM (banks1-4), Power chip, RTC, Log flash, Eeprom(fram), BootRun transfer block, and header block FileStat# 8448 0x2100 RO 64 Status of the Factory firmware file, as a file stat structure 1, 5 FileStat#1 8448 0x2140 RO 64 Status of the Firmware file #1, as a file stat structure 1, 5 FileStat#2 8448 0x2180 RO 64 Status of the Firmware file #2, as a file stat structure 1, 5 Ignore 32 0x2757 WO 64 This area is used for option boards. Usually block #1 option boards write status and configuration information in this area. The Boot firmware does not use such information, but must accept a write to this area in order to keep the option board happy Ignore 34 0x2B3F WO 64 This area is used for option boards. Usually option block #2 boards write status and configuration information in this area. The Boot firmware does not use such information, but must accept a write to this area in order to keep the option board happy Notes 1 This register can be read only after Engaging the unit (after sending command engage) 2 Definitions of the fields in Table 2 3 Definitions of the fields in Table 3 4 Result bit field definitionsn in table 4. 5 File Status structure is shown in table 5. 6 Commands defined in table 6

The Modbus boot status register (0x0016) shown above is configured to show the current status of the IED and the boot firmware. Below, an exemplary boot status register is shown. It is to be appreciated that the boot status register shown below is a bitmap register, therefore, groups of bits that are shown indicate different status characteristics.

(2) Boot Status Register Field Details: MMRRDD-EEEETPPP Field Bits Meaning MM 15~14 Meter Status. 11 = Unit is in boot mode. Other states reserved for run mode. RR 13~12 Run Block Status: 00 = Code found and CRC is ok; 01 = Code found but CRC is bad. 1X = Run block is empty. DD 11~10 Data Block Status: 00 = Code found and CRC is ok; 01 = Code found but CRC is bad. 1X = Run block is empty. — 9~8 Reserved EEEE 7~4 Error Code of the last command issued to the boot firmware. See error codes below. T 3 Toggle Comm. This bit toggles with every successful modbus received frame. So it's a way to know if the previous frame was received ok or not. PPP 2~0 Port Id. This 3 bits form an unsigned decimal number that identify the current connected port. In this way, the flashing program or any entity connected to the unit can know what communication port it is connected to. 1 = IrDA, 2 = RS485, 3 = Slot#1, 4 = Slot#2

Furthermore, the Modbus boot last error register (0x2002), shown above, is configured to show the result of the execution of the last command issued to the boot firmware. Below some possible values are shown in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure:

Value Descriptions 0 Invalid, or no command has been issued. 1 Pending. A command is pending. Boot can't accept new commands until the current is finished. 2 Unavailable. The command can't be performed now because it's blocked. 4 Error. The last command resulted in error. 5 Performed. The last command finished succesfully. 6 Run/Boot Xfer area is corrupted. Commands related to Run/Boot xfer can't be performed (like flashing from file).

Additionally, the Modbus boot test result register (0x2003), shown above, is configured to show the result of the last peripheral and external device test. Each bit is associated with the failure or good behavior of related device. Below, some exemplary values per bit are shown in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Bit# Name Descriptions 0 RAM1 If 1, means the Ram module #1 failed the R/W test (u18 in board Rev2), address 0x10000 1 RAM2 If 1, means the Ram module #2 failed the R/W test (u20 in board Rev2), address 0x20000 2 RAM3 If 1, means the Ram module #1 failed the R/W test (u2 in board Rev2), address 0x30000 3 RAM4 If 1, means the Ram module #1 failed the R/W test (u4 in board Rev2), address 0x40000 4 POWC If 1, means the power chip didn't reply correctly to interrogation. 5 RTC If 1, means the RTC chip didn't perform a correct access to its scratch ram space. 6 FRAMPROT if 1, means the FRAM reported full protection (BP0 = 1, BP1 = 1, WENL = 1), it can't be updated 7 FRAMBSY If 1, means the FRAM is in a busy state. This should never happen for FRAM 8 LOG1 If 1, means the FLASH-LOG memory couldn't be correctly accessed through CS1 (ID failed) 9 LOG2 If 1, means the FLASH-LOG memory couldn't be correctly accessed through CS2 (ID failed) 10 BRXFER If 1, means the BootRun-Xfer area is corrupted or couldn't be retrieved from the FRAM. 11 BADSN If 1, means the Serial number couldn't be retrieved from FRAM

Below, various methods will be described for updating the firmware on an IED, such as IED 10, and determining if there is an error associated with a firmware of the IED in accordance with the present disclosure. It is to be appreciated that although the methods below are described in reference to IED 10, the methods also apply to other IEDs, as will be described in greater detail below.

Referring to FIG. 23A, a flowchart of an exemplary method for testing the sanity (i.e., whether there is an error associated with) of run firmware of an IED, such as IED 10, is illustrated in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In step 2302, a reset of IED 10 is initialized beginning the initialization of the boot firmware, where, as stated above, the boot firmware is stored in a boot flash, such as boot flash 51 of CPU 50. In step 2304, internal registers in the CPU 50 are configured for operational state. This includes setting up memory ranges, configuring input/output ports, and blanking the screen of the IED 10.

In step 2306, the CPU 50 in IED 10 is configured to determine the reason of the reset and divert to different functions depending on the reason of reset. In one embodiment, CPU 50 includes an internal register, like a memory, that includes an entry indicating the reason for the last reset of the IED. This entry is written to the register by CPU 50 when a reset of the IED is initiated. This allows the CPU 50 to take proper action depending on the reset cause. If it is determined in step 2306 that the reset was caused by an internal computer operation properly fail, a crash counter is incremented by CPU 50, in step 2308. It is to be appreciated that, in one embodiment, CPU 50 includes another internal register that includes a crash counter indicating a number of times the CPU 50 has crashed. This crash counter is configured such that the crash counter is not modified when the CPU 50 is reset, therefore the value of the crash counter is preserved as long as the CPU 50 is powered.

If it is determined in step 2306 that the reset was caused by the external watchdog, i.e., WD reset, CPU 50 will determine if there is a valid boot transfer information block, in step 2310. In one embodiment, the transfer block is a structure of less than 1K byte in size. There are two identical copies of the transfer block stored in a memory of IED 10 (e.g., memory 20), and each copy has a known CRC16 value associated with it (also stored in memory 20). Similarly to the method employed by CPU 50 for CRC32 described above, CPU 50 may be configured to test if there is an error associated with the transfer block by computing a CRC16 for a first copy of the transfer block and comparing a CRC16 value obtained from the computation to a known CRC 16 value. In this way, if the computed CRC16 value matches the known CRC16 value, CPU 50 determines that the transfer block is valid or that there is no error associated with it. If CPU 50 determines that the known CRC16 value doesn't match the computed CRC16 value, the second copy of the transfer block is tested. In this case, there are two copies to allow CPU 50 to continue operation if one of the copies are found to have an error associated with them.

If it is determined in step 2306 that the reset was caused by the external watchdog, i.e., WD reset, CPU 50 will determine if there is a valid boot transfer information block, in step 2310. In one embodiment, the transfer block is a structure of less than 1K byte in size. There are two identical copies of the transfer block stored in a memory of IED 10 (e.g., memory 20), and each copy has a known CRC16 value associated with it (also stored in memory 20). Similarly to the method employed by CPU 50 for CRC32 described above, CPU 50 may be configured to test if there is an error associated with the transfer block by computing a CRC16 for a first copy of the transfer block and comparing a CRC16 value obtained from the computation to a known CRC 16 value. In this way, if the computed CRC16 value matches the known CRC16 value, CPU 50 determines that the transfer block is valid or that there is no error associated with it. If CPU 50 determines that the known CRC16 value doesn't match the computed CRC16 value, the second copy of the transfer block is tested. In this case, there are two copies to allow the system continue if one of the copies are bad.

If, CPU 50 determines there is no valid boot transfer information block, in step 2310, CPU 50 will determine that a crash has been detected, in step 2308. Alternatively, if CPU 50 determines there is a valid boot transfer information block, in step 2310, CPU 50 will determine a voluntary reset occurred (i.e., main firmware voluntarily caused the reset), in step 2314. If, CPU 50 determines in step 2306 that the reason for the reset is because a power-up cycle has occurred, CPU 50 will proceed with a fresh startup, in step 2312 (i.e., CPU 50 will start up or boot up the IED normally).

It is to be appreciated that if it is determined by CPU 50, in 2314, that the reason the IED has been reset is a voluntary restart, CPU 50 will check the sanity of the transfer boot. After step 2314, the method proceeds to step 2315. In step 2315, CPU 50 is configured to determine if a command is received indicating to flash the new firmware (where the run firmware is requesting the boot firmware to flash a new firmware) and that there are no errors associated with the firmware. In step 2315, CPU checks two things: if the boot transfer is ok or not ok (i.e., if there are any errors associated with the boot transfer or not). If, in step 2315, CPU 50 determines that a command has been received to flash new firmware and that there are no errors associated with the new firmware, the method proceeds to step 2318. Alternatively, if, in step 2315, CPU 50 determines that no command has been received to flash new firmware or that that are errors (i.e., the boot transfer is corrupted), the process proceeds to step 2316. It is to be appreciated that if the received command is “Flash new Firmware” and there are no errors (thus it is a real flash command) there is no point in checking the flash (e.g., the run firmware in RUNFLASH 53 as shown in FIG. 1 or RUNFLASH 3353 as shown in FIG. 33) in step 2316 because the flash is about to be overwritten with the new firmware, so the process proceeds to step 2318.

It is to be appreciated that, in step 2306, the CPU 50 may also determine that the reset was caused as a result of a soft reset. It is to be appreciated that a hard reset is a physical signal (e.g., coming from watchdog 17 and received by CPU 50) to reset all of the hardware of IED (i.e., CPU 50, DSP1 60, DSP2 70, FPGA 80, etc.) and a soft reset is an internal mechanism of CPU 50 that only resets CPU 50 (and its internal peripherals). If CPU 50 determines that the reset was caused as a result of a soft reset, in step 2306, the CPU 50 proceeds to step 2316. It is also to be appreciated that, if, in step 2306, CPU 50 determines that the reset was caused by some reason other than the watchdog, a soft reset, or a power-up cycle, CPU 50 will determine that a crash has been detected in step 2308.

Unless the reset is for executing a flash command and the passed parameters for this command are all ok (i.e., no errors have been detected by CPU 50), for all other reasons for the reset (i.e., watchdog, soft reset, power-up cycle, or “other” shown in FIG. 23A), the CPU 50 is configured to always check (i.e., perform the CRC32 comparison described above) the run flash 53, in step 2316. It is to be appreciated that in step 2316 an internal checksum (e.g., CRC32) is computed and verified to comply with a saved value of the firmware (e.g., saved in a memory of the IED, such as memory 20) and the result of the check is resumed in a flag indicating if the flash is Empty, Valid, Invalid, or a Temporary Error has been detected. For example, when CPU 50 flashes a run firmware into the IED, CPU 50 also stores a CRC32 of the known good firmware in a memory of the IED. Thereafter, every time the flashed firmware needs to be checked to determine if there is an error associated with the flashed firmware, the CRC32 of the flashed firmware is recomputed by CPU 50 and compared to the stored value.

Referring to FIG. 23B, a method for checking the run flash (i.e., determining if there is an error associated with the run firmware in the run flash) is shown in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. It is to be appreciated that the steps of the method of FIG. 23B may reflect step 2316. As will be described below, the steps of the method of FIG. 23B may also reflect the step of 2913 in the method of FIG. 30.

In the method of FIG. 23B, initially, the flash is checked by CPU 50 for emptiness, in step 2350. CPU 50 checks the flash for emptiness by reading all the content in the flash and comparing each of individual value of the content against a predetermined value (i.e., an “empty value”) stored in a memory, such as memory 20, of the IED. For example, in one embodiment, the empty value is: 0xFFFF (hex). If all the whole flash is filled with the predetermined value, the empty value then the flash is declared “Empty”. Regardless of the result of step 2350, a CRC value for the run firmware in the flash is computed by CPU 50, in step 2352. In one embodiment, the CRC value is computed by CPU 50 using a CRC algorithm stored in a memory, such as memory 20, of the IED The resulting value calculated by CPU 50 in step 2352 (i.e., “now”) is compared to a known value (saved by CPU 50 in a memory of the IED, such as memory 20, when the run firmware was flashed into the flash 53 of the IED), at step 2354. If the “now” CRC value calculated by CPU 50 matches the “saved” CRC value, CPU 50 determines if the flash was empty (based on the result of step 2350), at step 2356. If the flash is determined to be empty by CPU 50, in step 2356, the flash “empty” flag is set by CPU 50 for the flash being checked, in step 2358, and the process returns to FIG. 23A, in step 2372.

If CPU 50 determines that the computed CRC value and the saved CRC value don't match, at step 2354, a display flag for the flash being checked is set to “bad flash” (i.e., indicated there is an error associated with the run firmware tested by CPU 50), in step 2360. The CRC value of the run firmware in the flash is computed by CPU 50 a second time (i.e., “now2”), in step 2362, and compared by CPU 50 to the first computed value (“now”), in step 2364. If CPU 50 determines that the first computed CRC value and the second computed CRC value don't match, at step 2364, this means there is a temporary failure (due to, for example, Electrical Fast Transient (EFT), or other interferences into the system that are preventing the correct reading of flash), and CPU 50 tags the run firmware in the flash as “Temporary Errored”, in step 2366, and the processor proceeds to step 2356. It is to be appreciated that if CPU 50 determines that the flash is experiencing a temporary error (based on the “now” and “now2” values not matching) CPU 50 is configured to restart the IED to check the run firmware in the flash again, as will be described in greater detail below.

If CPU 50 determines that the flash is not empty, in step 2356, CPU 50 determines if the “now” value and the “saved” value match, in step 2368. If CPU 50 determines the “now” value and the “saved” do not match, in step 2368, CPU 50 tags the firmware in the flash as “Bad” (i.e., that there is an error associated with it), in step 2370. If CPU 50 determines that the “now” value and “saved” value match, in step 2368, CPU 50 tags the firmware in the flash as “good” (or the valid flash flag is set), in step 2371. Once the proper flag is set by CPU 50, in steps 2358, 2370, 2371, the process returns to FIG. 23A, in step 2372.

It is to be appreciated that in step 2316 (depicted in FIG. 23A) CPU 50 identifies what the state of the flash is (i.e., Empty, Valid, Temporary Errored or Invalid). Referring again to FIG. 23A, at step 2317, the CPU 50 determines if there is a temporary error that occurred with the flash. For example, CPU 50 may reboot immediately if the state of the flash (as determined in step 2316) is Temporary Errored. In this way, if CPU 50 determines that a temporary error has occurred with the flash, CPU 50 will reboot the IED and the method shown in FIG. 23A will be repeated. If CPU 50 determines that the error with the flash is not temporary (based on the flag or state determined in step 2316), at step 2317, the CPU 50 initializes communications (e.g., Modbus communication) in preparation to treat any of the other 3 possibilities (i.e., Empty, Valid, Invalid) for the flash, in step 2318. For example, in one embodiment, CPU 50 is configured to initialize communications interface 24, in step 2318.

In step 2320, if CPU 50 determines that the result of the check flash (from step 2316) is that the flash is Valid (i.e., there are no errors associated with the run firmware in the flash), the process proceeds to step 2328, where the method will proceed normally unless an external communication is received by the boot of CPU 50 requesting to stay in boot (through 2330). Otherwise, in 2320, if CPU 50 determines that the result of the check flash (from step 2316) was that the flash was Invalid (i.e., there was an error associated with the run firmware in the flash) or the command received in boot is a command to stay in boot, the process goes to step 2322. It is to be appreciated that in step 2320, the “Invalid” state of the flash occurs if the flash was tagged Invalid (i.e., there was an error associated with the run firmware in the flash) by CPU 50 in step 2316. CPU 50 may tag the flash as invalid if the checksum verification failed or if the flash was determined to be empty by CPU 50 (as described above in relation to FIG. 23B).

Referring again to step 2320, the CPU 50 diverts the action depending on if the run flash 53 is in good condition or not (i.e., has been tagged “good”, meaning there is no error associated with the run firmware or tagged as “bad”, meaning the run is empty or there is an error associated with the run firmware, as per step 2316—). If CPU 50 determines that there are no errors with the run flash 53, and the cause of the reset (as determined in step 2306) was not a voluntary reset, the CPU 50 will prepare to accept Modbus communication within a time frame, in step 2328. It is to be appreciated that in step 2330, CPU 50 will wait for a predetermined period of time to receive an external communication from a user to engage in communication with the boot for specific purposes, such as, but not limited to, sending commands to test the stored firmware, downgrading the firmware, or test communication with the boot. In one embodiment, the CPU 50 will wait for 3 seconds to receive a communication in step 2330. If a communication is received within the predetermined time period, the process proceeds to step 2322 and if no communication is received within the predetermined time period, the process proceeds to step 2332. At step 2332, information is displayed on a display of IED 10 by CPU 50 that IED 10 is going to run normally (i.e., information indicating the run firmware will be executed by CPU 50) and at step 2334 the CPU 50 will proceed to run (i.e., the run firmware will be executed by CPU 50). If CPU 50 determines in step 2320 that there was a run-callback (i.e., a command from the run firmware to the boot firmware to stay in boot) or that the flash was tagged as “bad” (i.e., there is an error associated with the run firmware), the CPU 50 determines that the run flash 53 is invalid and CPU 50 stays in boot mode at step 2322, and initializes other peripherals that are needed to continue in boot. At step 2324, the results are displayed on the IED 10 and, in step 2326, the method proceeds to the main loop as will be described below in reference to FIG. 24.

Referring to FIG. 24, a flowchart of an exemplary main run loop of an IED, such as IED 10, is shown in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. At step 2402, the CPU 50 enters the main run loop from the boot or startup loop shown in FIG. 23A. At step 2404, CPU 50 sets up a timer (i.e., an inactivity timeout), so CPU 50 can determine when IED 10 has stayed in boot for too long, and retry to go to run. It is to be appreciated the timer (i.e., the inactivity timeout in step 2404) prevents the CPU 50 from locking up and entering an infinite loop. At step 2406, if CPU 50 determines that a predetermined time period has passed where the IED 10 has stayed in boot, the CPU 50 diverts to step 2410, where the CPU 50 recalls what the Flash status computed in 2316 is.

If CPU 50 determines that the last flash status computed in step 2316 resulted in an error (i.e., there is an error associated with the firmware currently flashed to run flash 53), in step 2410, CPU 50 is configured to schedule a flashing of the last known version of the firmware that has no errors (i.e., a previous version of the firmware). Then, CPU 50 will set an inactivity timeout for a predetermined period of time, in step 2416, where the inactivity timeout period of step 2416 is shorter in duration than the inactivity timeout period of step 2404. After the inactivity timeout period of step 2416 expires, CPU 50 is configured to perform step 2406 again.

It is to be appreciated that in some embodiments, the previous versions of the firmware are stored in a memory of the IED 10, such as memory 20. CPU 50 is configured to choose from the previous versions of firmware in memory 20 to flash to run flash 53. In one embodiment, the run firmware versions stored in non-volatile memory 20 are tested, and one of the 3 possible slots is selected as the one to be used. There are 3 slots: Slot 0 contains the run firmware installed in IED 10 when IED 10 was manufactured (default firmware). Slot 2 contains the most recent run firmware (i.e., the one the user just flashed). And the Slot 1 contains the run firmware that was in IED 10 before the user flashed the new firmware (if any new run firmware has been flashed). In one embodiment, the boot firmware in boot flash 51 is configured to test the versions of the run firmware stored in non-volatile memory 20 in reverse chronological order, i.e., first the run firmware in Slot 2 is tested, then the run firmware in Slot 1, and then the run firmware in Slot 0. In this way, IED 10 can determine the latest known good run firmware. It is to be appreciated that although in the above-described embodiment IED 10 includes 3 saved versions of a run firmware, any number of versions of a run firmware may be stored as desired.

In another embodiment, the previous versions of the firmware are stored in a remote server that CPU 50 is in communication with via communication interface 24. In this embodiment, CPU 50 may automatically retrieve a desired version of the firmware from the remote server to flash to CPU 50. The desired version may be a copy of the same version of the firmware that was just tested by the IED or a previous version of the firmware. CPU 50 may be configured to communicate with the remote server to search for a particular desired version of the IED. It is to be appreciated that the remote server may be located in the cloud, in a customer facility, or within a local or remote network.

In one embodiment, the remote server may be disposed in another IED (i.e., maintained in a memory of another IED) In this embodiment, one or more IEDs may be in communication with each other in a mesh type network. When an IED determines that there is an error associated with a firmware stored in a memory of the IED (as described above), the IED may send a request to one or more of the IEDs in the mesh network to send a previous known good version of the firmware to the IED. The request may be retransmitted by each of the IEDs in the mesh network so that each IED in the mesh network can check to see if they have a previous known good version of the firmware to send to the IED that made the request.

Wherever the server is located, CPU 50 may be configured to search the remote server via a network, serial, and/or wireless connection to communication interface 24. When communicating with the remote server using a wireless connection, CPU 50 may be configured to initiate the communication with the remote server using at least one of the following communication protocols: Modbus, FTP request, restful services, HTTP, serial communication, or any other wireless ready communication protocols. An IED configured to automatically update the firmware of an IED by retrieving the firmware from a remote server is described in more detail in commonly owned application Ser. No. 15/332,447, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

In yet another embodiment, CPU 50 may be configured to receive a communication from the remote server including the previous versions of the firmware, where the communication may include a previous version of the firmware. In this embodiment, a user may “push” a firmware update of a desired version of the firmware to CPU 50 without CPU 50 making a request for the firmware. The pushed firmware update may be sent to CPU 50 (via communication interface 24) at predetermined time intervals.

It is to be appreciated that CPU 50 may be configured to download the full firmware from the remote server or a portion thereof. In some embodiments, CPU 50 may check the remote server for versions of the firmware at predetermined intervals (e.g., every few hours, every day, every week, etc.) This allows CPU 50 to automatically keep its firmware up to date. Furthermore, this prevents security flaws from being exploited by hackers and other malicious type assaults on the integrity of the firmware of the IED.

In one embodiment, when CPU 50 connects to a remote server, CPU 50 is configured to request the desired version of the firmware be sent to CPU 50 by the remote server. This may be done in runtime while the full functionality of the IED is available. Once the firmware is sent to CPU 50 and fully downloaded by CPU 50 (into a memory of the IED, such as memory 20), CPU 50 may be configured to check the integrity and/or authenticity of the downloaded firmware using one or more techniques, such as, but not limited to, hashing, public/private encryption keys, CRC 32, etc. Once CPU 50 confirms that the downloaded firmware is authentic, CPU 50 may store the firmware in the proper location of the IED (e.g., in memory 20 or flash 51, 53). It is to be appreciated that CPU 50 and the remote server may be configured to include several security measures to ensure that communication by CPU 50 and the remote server does not become compromised, for example, the firmware sent to CPU 50 by the remote server may be encrypted and one or more hashes and or private/public key pairs may be used to decrypt the encrypted firmware and confirm its integrity and authenticity.

In one embodiment, after CPU 50 makes a request for a desired version of a firmware to a remote server or computing device, the remote server or computing device responds to the request by CPU 50 with a communication including the requested version of the firmware and a digital signature. The CPU 50 is configured to decrypt the digital signature using a public key stored in a memory of the IED, such as memory 20, to obtain a first value. CPU 50 is also configured to execute a hash function on some or all of the requested version of the firmware received in the communication to obtain a second value. CPU 50 may then compare the first value and the second value to determine if the firmware in the received communication from the remote server is authentic before flashing and executing the firmware. It is to be appreciated that the digital signature may be created by the remote server by encrypting a hash value using a private key (known only to the remote server) that corresponds to the public key (that is stored in the memory of the IED).

An IED configured with one or more of the security measures described above is described in more detail in commonly owned application Ser. No. 15/386,766, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

In one embodiment, as stated above, CPU 50 may be configured to store one or more copies of the same version of the firmware found to have an error in step 2410. In this embodiment, in step 2408, CPU 50 is configured to schedule another copy of the same version of the firmware that is stored in memory to be flashed to CPU 50. If all of the copies of the firmware that are stored in memory 20 of the IED produce an error when tested by CPU 50, CPU 50 is configured to retrieve a last known good firmware from an external source, such as a remote server, as described above. It is to be appreciated that the last known good firmware may either be the same version of the firmware that CPU 50 already tested or a previous version of the IED.

Referring again to step 2410 of FIG. 24, if CPU 50 determines that the last flash status computed in step 2316 resulted in no errors (i.e., there is no error associated with the run firmware in run flash 53), in step 2410, CPU 50 is configured to output a message for display on the IED (or to a remote computing device via communication interface 24) indicating that there were no errors found by CPU 50 with the run firmware in run flash 53, in step 2412, and CPU 50 is configured to go to run (i.e., execute the run firmware in run flash 53), in step 2414, and transfer the control to the run firmware, in step 2414.

Referring again to step 2406, if, at step 2406, CPU 50 determines that there is no inactivity timeout, CPU 50 will check for a run command received from communication (e.g., a command from the run firmware), in step 2420. If CPU 50 determines a command is received, in step 2420, the command will be executed, in step 2422 (which, will be described in greater detail in relation to FIG. 28) and the process will return to step 2406. If CPU 50 determines that no command is received, in step 2420, CPU 50 outputs for display the status of the IED 10 and the remaining time (in numeric or graphic mode), in step 2424.

At step 2426, communication transmission is serviced as will be described below in relation to FIG. 26. At step 2428, communication reception is serviced as will be described below in relation to FIG. 25. It is to be appreciated that, for steps 2426 and 2428, all available ports are serviced, unless an “engage” command has been received by CPU 50. If an “engage” command is received by CPU 50, only the engaged port is serviced.

At step 2430, CPU 50 determines if CPU 50 is currently sending or outputting data. If it is determined that CPU 50 is currently sending data, the process will revert back to step 2406 so that the transmission of the data will continue as constant as possible. Alternatively, if it is determined that CPU 50 is not currently sending data, in step 2430, CPU 50 will then determine if there are any pending commands, in step 2432. It is to be appreciated that pending commands are received from a communication from the run firmware. If it is determined by CPU 50 that there is a pending command, in step 2432, the command will be executed by CPU 50, in step 2434, and the process will revert back to step 2406. Alternatively, if it is determined that there is no pending command, in step 2432, CPU 50 will determine if a request has been received from communication, in step 2436. If it is determined that no request has been received, in step 2436, the process will revert back to step 2406. If it is determined that a request has been received, in step 2436, the inactivity timer will be restarted by CPU 50, in step 2438. It is to be appreciated that the inactivity timer in step 2438 is set to the same inactivity timeout as was set in step 2404. At step 2440, the request is executed (as will be described below in relation to FIG. 27), which could be an immediate action (done immediately in this block) or a pending command (stored for later execution in steps 2432 and 2434).

It is to be appreciated that while the main loop shown in FIG. 24 is executing, an interrupt service routine is concurrently performed by CPU 50 of IED 10 in the background. At step 2442, CPU 50 will preserve all registers used by the main loop. At step 2444, a soft-timer and soft-counter are updated (incrementally) by CPU 50, where the soft-timer and soft-counter may be maintained by CPU 50 in a memory or register of CPU 50 or another memory of IED 10, such as memory 18 or 20. At step 2446, the Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) communication system is updated by CPU 50, where UART is the hardware being serviced for serial communication. At step 2448, CPU 50 will restore all registers, and continue performing the process in the main loop from (step 2402) of FIG. 24. In one embodiment, the interrupt service routine is performed by CPU 50 every 110 microseconds.

Referring to FIG. 25, step 2428 of FIG. 24 is shown in greater detail. Initially, in FIG. 25, CPU 50 decides how to handle the individual byte receptions of a communication depending on the communication protocol used: Modbus ASCII or Modbus RTU, in step 2501. For ASCII frame, CPU 50 checks if there is a new byte received by IED 10, in step 2502. At step 2503, if CPU 50 determines the byte is a “:” (colon also known as the ASCII character 58, hex 0x3A), CPU 50 will cause a restart of the reception State Machine (“SM”), in step 2504. However, if in step 2502 CPU 50 determines that the byte is not a “:”, the CPU 50 will determine whether to ignore the byte based on the State, in step 2505. At step 2506, CPU 50 will determine if anything is received within a predetermined period of time. If nothing is received within a predetermined period of time, CPU 50 will determine a timeout has occurred. It is to be appreciated that if CPU 50 determines to ignore the byte based on the State (step 2505) or the receptions SM is restarted (step 2504) or CPU 50 determines that no timeout has occurred (step 2506), the process continues to step 2520 as indicated in FIG. 25 by “nxt.”

If CPU 50 determines not to ignore the byte, in step 2505, CPU 50 will process a full frame of ASCII, the Line Redundant Check if computed on the fly (as the bytes are input) and the CR and LF terminators are checked by CPU 50 as an end of message markers, in step 2507. If CPU 50 determines that the processed message at step 2507 had bad LRCD or address or sequence number (message fields from Modbus ASCII standard) then the State Machine is set to ignore further bytes, at step 2508. If CPU 50 determines that all is ok at step 2507, the message received is declared as successfully received, at step 2509. If CPU 50 determines there is no CR and LF sequence, CPU 50 will determine there the frame is not finished and the byte is stored in a memory of IED 10, such as memory 18 or 20 and the reception is continued, at step 2522. From steps 2508, 2509, and 2522, the process proceeds to step 2520.

Referring again to step 2501, for RTU frame, if CPU 50 determines there is no new byte, at step 2510, the process goes to 2512. However, if CPU 50 determines there is a new byte received by IED 10, the process goes to step 2511. At step 2512, CPU 50 checks if enough time elapsed since the last received message. If CPU 50 determines that enough time has passed since the last received message, the process continues to step 2514. However, if CPU 50 determines that a timeout has occurred (i.e., a predetermined period of time has passed since the last message was received), in step 2512, the process will continue to step 2520, as indicated in FIG. 25 by “nxt.”

If CPU 50 determines that a new byte is received, at step 2510, CPU 50 will then determine whether to process the message on SM, in step 2511. If CPU 50 determines that the message should not be processed, at step 2511, the process continues to step 2520, as indicated in FIG. 25 by “nxt.” If CPU 50 determines that the message should be processed, at step 2511, CPU 50 stores the bytes building a message, the CRC (RTU field) is computed byte by byte and the function code and length are used to validate the message, in step 2515. Then, CPU 50 stores the received byte, in step 2516 and the process proceeds to step 2520.

At step 2514, CPU 50 will determine if the timeout was caused by a preamble or a postamble. A preamble is a period of time when nothing is received by IED 10 while the receiver was idle, in the Modbus RTU protocol, this time is 1.5 times the duration of the transmission of a single byte. A postamble is a period of time when nothing is received while the receiver was previously receiving something. The postamble determines the end of a packet and it is usually 3.5 times the duration of the single byte. If CPU 50 determines that the state machine is waiting for a preamble, in step 2514, the state machine is set as receiving, in step 2513, and the process continues to step 2520 as indicated by “nxt.” If CPU 50 determines that the time out was due a postamble, in step 2514, then CPU 50 will determine that the byte is the end of the frame and CPU 50 will check the frame, in step 2519. If CPU 50 determines in step 2519 that the frame is ok, CPU 50 will tag the received message as successfully received, in step 2517 and the process will proceed to step 2520. If CPU 50 determines in step 2519 that there is something wrong with the frame (e.g., CRC, address, function or length), CPU 50 will discard the message and restart the reception for the next frame, in step 2518. At step 2520 CPU 50 will determine if all the ports of IED 10 have been checked for a received byte. If CPU 50 determines that all ports have been checked for received byte at step 2520, the process is finished. However, if CPU 50 determines that one or more ports have not been checked, in step 2520, CPU 50 will prepare the next port (i.e., an unchecked port) to be checked and revert back to step 2501 as indicated in FIG. 25 by “loop.”

Referring to FIG. 26, an exemplary method for processing the byte transmission for the Modbus ASCII and Modbus RTU protocols is shown in accordance with the present disclosure. It is to be appreciated that FIG. 26 is a more detailed illustration of step 2426 of FIG. 24. Also, it is to be appreciated that the transmission routine of FIG. 26 uses one port of the IED 10 at a time. The port is selected by demand, which means whenever the boot firmware needs to send a reply the boot firmware will select a desired port.

At step 2600, CPU 50 determines if the transmission is idle. If CPU 50 determines that the transmission is idle, the method returns to the process of FIG. 24 as indicated by “ret.” If CPU 50 determines that the transmission is not idle, CPU 50 will check the type of frame according to internal settings, at step 2601. If CPU 50 determines that the frame is ASCII, in step 2601, CPU 50 will determine if the state of the frame is a preamble or if the state of the frame is other than a preamble, in step 2602. If the state of the frame is the preamble, CPU 50 will send the “:” and clear the LRC, in step 2604 and the method will end, as indicated by “ret” in FIG. 26. If CPU 50 determines the state of the frame is anything other than the preamble, in step 2602, CPU 50 will determine the state of the frame, in step 2603. If CPU 50 determines the state of the frame is doing low nibble, at 2603, CPU 50 will get the high nibble of the byte to be sent, and send it as ASCII. Furthermore, CPU 50 will also set the SM as low nibble. If CPU 50 determines the state of the frame is doing high nibble, at step 2603, CPU 50 will send the low nibble part of the byte to be sent and change the SM to transmit, in step 2606. At step 2607, CPU 50 will re-compute LRC based on the transmitted byte. At step 2608, CPU 50 will determine if all bytes are sent. If CPU 50 determines that all bytes are sent, in step 2608, CPU 50 will set the SM as idle, in step 2609. If CPU 50 determines that all bytes are not sent, in step 2608, the method returns to the process of FIG. 24 as indicated by “ret.”

Referring again, to step 2601, if CPU 50 determines the frame is RTU, CPU 50 will then determine the state of the frame, at step 2610. If CPU 50 determines the state of the frame is transmit, CPU 50 will determine if CPU 50 is ready to send the frame, in step 2614. If CPU 50 determines the state of the frame is a state other than transmit, in step 2610, CPU 50 will determine if there is a timeout, in step 2611. If CPU 50 determines that there is no timeout, in step 2611, the method returns to the process of FIG. 24 as indicated by “ret.” If CPU 50 determines that there is a timeout, in step 2611, CPU 50 will determine the state of the frame in step 2612. If CPU 50 determines the state is preamble, in step 2612, CPU 50 will set the SM to transmit, and reset the CRC computation, in step 2613, and CPU 50 will determine if CPU 50 is ready to send the byte, in step 2614. If, in step 2614, CPU 50 determines that IED 10 is ready to accept more bytes for transmission, CPU 50 will compute the CRC of the byte to be sent and send the byte to the hardware, in step 2617. If CPU 50 determines that all was sent (all bytes to be transmitted were processed), in step 2618, CPU 50 will set the SM in postamble and the method returns to the process of FIG. 24 as indicated by “ret.” If CPU 50 determines that all bytes to be processed were not processed, in step 2618, the method returns to the process of FIG. 24 as indicated by “ret.”

Referring to FIG. 27 an exemplary method of performing a request in IED 10 is shown in accordance with the present disclosure. It is to be appreciated that the method of FIG. 27 is a more detailed representation of step 2440 of FIG. 24. In step 2700, CPU 50 determines if the request is looking for Name, Version or Serial Number registers. If CPU 50 determines that the request is looking for Name, Version or Serial Number registers, in step 2700, CPU 50 prepares a string for the Name, Version or Serial number requested and places the requested information into the reply buffer, in step 2701. Alternatively, if CPU 50 determines that the request is not looking for Name, Version or Serial Number registers, in step 2700, CPU 50 will if the request is for the boot status register, in step 2702. If CPU 50 determines that the request is for the boot status register, in step 2702, CPU 50 will prepare a status reply and store the status in the reply buffer, in step 2703. Alternatively, if CPU 50 determines that the request is not for the boot status register, in step 2702, CPU 50 determine if the requested register is “engage register”, in step 2704. As for steps 2701 and 2703, it is to be appreciated that the data to be transmitted is placed by CPU 50 in a transmit buffer of IED 10, where the transmit buffer may be maintained by the boot firmware either within a flash memory of CPU 50 or volatile memory 18 of IED 10. It is to be appreciated that in some embodiments of the IED, CPU 50 is configured to maintain one or more transmit buffers for each communication port of IED 10.

If CPU 50 determines that the request is “engage register,” in step 2704, CPU 50 will disable other communication ports of IED 10 so that the communication with the actual port becomes exclusive and CPU 50 will set the system state as “Engaged,” in step 2705. If CPU determines the requested register is no “engage register,” in step 2704, CPU 50 will determine if the unit was “Engaged,” in step 2706. It is to be appreciated that some registers of CPU 50 are blocked by CPU 50 when IED 10 is not engaged to ensure an external device communicating with the IED follows a desired communication sequence to assure the access to IED 10 is intentional and not a random access. If CPU 50 determines that unit was “Engaged,” in step 2706, CPU 50 will then determine if the requested register is Command or Action register, in step 2707. If CPU 50 determines that the unit was not “Engaged,” in step 2706, CPU 50 will prepare an exception reply (i.e., a reply indicating that something is wrong with the received request) in the reply buffer, in step 2709 and then the method of FIG. 27 will revert to the method of FIG. 24 as indicated by “ret.” If CPU 50 determines in step 2707 that the requested register is Command or Action register, CPU 50 will execute the command or action, in step 2708. Alternatively, if CPU 50 determines that the requested register is not a Command or Action register, in step 2707, CPU 50 will prepare an exception reply, in step 2709 and return to the method of FIG. 24, as described above.

Referring to FIG. 28, an exemplary method of performing a run command on an IED, such as IED 10, is illustrated in accordance with the present disclosure. It is to be appreciated that the method of FIG. 28 is a more detailed representation of step 2422 of FIG. 24. When the command run is received at step 2710, CPU 50 will determine if the command is “Check”, “Flashing”, or some other command. If CPU 50 determines that the command is “Check,” in step 2710, CPU 50 will verify the File firmware to be flashed (Data/Run), in step 2713, and report internally the result (result of verification file Run/Data), in step 2716, and return to the process of FIG. 24 as indicated by “ret.” If CPU 50 determines that the command is “Flashing,” in step 2710, CPU 50 will verify the File firmware to be flashed (Data/Run parts are verified), in step 2712. Then, in step 2714, CPU 50 will determine if the status result of the file Data/Run verification is ok or has failed. If CPU 50 determines that the status result has failed, in step 2714, CPU 50 will report the failure internally, in step 2716. If CPU 50 determines that the status result is ok, in step 2714, CPU 50 will post the “flash” command as a pending command to be executed later, in step 2715, and return to the process of FIG. 24 as indicated by “ret.”

Referring to FIG. 29, an exemplary method of executing a received command in an IED, such as IED 10, is illustrated in accordance with the present disclosure. In step 2800, the command is retrieved by CPU 50 from the written value. It is to be appreciated that the written value is the value received from the external interface through the receive function. In step 2801, if the command is “Engage” CPU 50 will proceed to step 2802; otherwise, if CPU 50 determines that the system state is already engaged, CPU 50 will proceed to step 2803. In step 2803, CPU 50 will determine if the system state is engaged. If CPU 50 determines that the system state is engaged, in step 2803, CPU 50 will then determine if the command to be executed is “Set Rs485,” in step 2804. If CPU 50 determines that the system state is not engaged, in step 2803, CPU 50 will then prepare the exception to be replied by the transmit function, in step 2809, and return to the process of FIG. 24 as indicated by “ret.”

Referring again to step 2804, if CPU 50 determines that the command to be executed is “Set Rs485,” CPU 50 will determine if the engaged port on IED 10 is a port for RS485, in step 2812. If CPU 50 determines that the engaged port is a port for RS485, in step 2812, CPU 50 will proceed to step 2813, as will be described below. If CPU determines that the engaged port is not a port for RS485, in step 2812, CPU 50 will prepare an exception indicating the command is not a valid command, in step 2811, and return to the process of FIG. 24 as indicated by “ret.” IF CPU 50 determines that the command to be executed is no “Set R5485,” in step 2804, CPU 50 will then determine if the command is one of “Compute Run CRC” or “Data CRC”, or “Reboot” or “Go to Run” or if the command a command other than “Compute Run CRC” or “Data CRC”, or “Reboot” or “Go to Run”, in step 2805.

If CPU 50 determines the command is not one of “Compute Run CRC” or “Data CRC”, or “Reboot” or “Go to Run”, in step 2805, CPU 50 will prepare an exception reply because the command is not known, in step 2806 and return to the process of FIG. 24 as indicated by “ret.” Alternatively, if CPU 50 determines the command is one of “Compute Run CRC” or “Data CRC”, or “Reboot” or “Go to Run”, in step 2805, CPU 50 will set the command as pending to be executed later, in step 2813. It is to be appreciated that pending command are processed by CPU 50 after sending the reply. After CPU 50 sets the command as pending, in step 2813, CPU 50 will prepare a reply indicating the command was accepted (i.e., an “acknowledged” reply), in step 2814 and return to the process of FIG. 24 as indicted by “ret.”

Referring again to step 2802, if CPU 50 determines that the command is not engaged, CPU 50 will engage the necessary port and lock all other ports, in step 2807. In this way, the current communication becomes exclusive. At step 2808, CPU 50 will output a message for display on IED 10 indicating the port number of communication port that is now exclusive. At step 2810, CPU 50 will prepare the “acknowledged” reply as described above, and return to the process of FIG. 24 as indicated by “ret.” If CPU 50 determines that the command is engaged, in step 2802, CPU 50 will prepare the exception to be replied by the transmit function, in step 2809, as described above.

Referring to FIG. 30, an exemplary method of executing a pending command in an IED, such as IED 10, is illustrated in accordance with the present disclosure. In step 2900, CPU 50 takes the command from the pending command area stored in a memory of IED 10, such as memory 18 or 20 (where the command was placed for later execution during execution of performing a request as shown in FIG. 27). At step 2901, CPU 50 determines if the command is “Go to Run” or if the command is a command other than “Go to Run.” If CPU 50 determines that the command is “Go to Run,” in step 2901, CPU 50 will compute a CRC value (as described above) for the run firmware and set the global flags (i.e., Valid, Invalid, Temporary Errored, Empty) based on a comparison of the computed CRC value and a stored CRC value, in step 2902.

In step 2902, CPU 50 will compare the CRC value computed for the run firmware to stored value (i.e., a known good value) to determine if there is an error associated with the run firmware (as described above), where the stored value for the run firmware may be stored in a memory of the IED 10, such as memory 20. It is to be appreciated that, in one embodiment, step 2902 is the process of FIG. 29B. It is also to be appreciated that while CPU 50 is computing the CRC value of the run firmware and comparing it to the stored value, watchdog kicks (i.e., signals that CPU 50 is running properly) are still being issued to watchdog 17 by CPU 50, so the IED 10 is not restarted.

Then, in step 2906, CPU 50 will determine if based on the check flash of step 2902 (i.e., the CRC comparison test), there are any errors associated with the run firmware. If CPU 50 determines that there are no errors associated with the run firmware (i.e., the computed CRC value matches the stored CRC value), in step 2906, CPU 50 will go to run (e.g., initiate the run firmware), in step 2911. However, if CPU 50 determines that there is an error associated with the run firmware (i.e., the computed CRC value does not match the stored CRC value), in step 2906, CPU 50 will output a message for display (e.g., via multimedia interface 22 to display of the IED or to a display of a user on a remote computer) indicating the status of the check (i.e., the type of error associated with the run firmware), in step 2907, and the process will return to the process of FIG. 24 as indicated by “ret.”

Referring again to step 2901, if CPU 50 determines that the command is a command other than “Go to Run,” in step 2901, CPU 50 will determine if the command is “Set Hi Speed” or a command other than “Set Hi Speed,” in step 2904. If CPU 50 determines that the command is “Set Hi Speed,” in step 2904, CPU 50 will reinitialize the communication through the current communication channel, but with high output (i.e., high speed), in step 2908, and the process will return to the process of FIG. 24 as indicated by “ret.” It is to be appreciated that “Set Hi Speed” is a command to make communication using the IED faster than the default speed. The command to make communication using the IED faster than the default speed may be stored in a temporary register stored in a volatile memory of the IED, such as volatile memory 18. The default speed (9600 bps) is used by the boot firmware only when coming up from a power-up reset. “Set Hi Speed” command is used to make the boot use the 57600 bps speed.

If CPU 50 determines that the command is a command other than “Set Hi Speed,” in step 2904, CPU will determine if the command is “Flash firmware” or a command other than “Flash firmware Slot X,” in step 2905. It is to be appreciated that the command “Flash firmware Slot X” is a command indicating which of the previous versions of the firmware stored in non-volatile memory of the IED are to be flashed by CPU 50. For example, as described above, Slots 0, 1, or 2, may be used in certain embodiments to designate various versions of a firmware stored in non-volatile memory of the IED In this way, if “Flash firmware Slot 1” is received, CPU 50 is configured to flash the version of the firmware stored in Slot 1 of the non-volatile memory 20 of the IED In one embodiment, if CPU 50 determines that the command is “Flash Firmware Slot X,” in step 2905, CPU 50 will test the firmware file (i.e., CPU 50 will perform the CRC32 comparison described above for the firmware in Slot X to determine if there is an error associated with the firmware in Slot X of the non-volatile memory of the IED) and flash the firmware file into the internal programmable memory (i.e., run flash 53), in step 2910. Then, after the firmware has been flashed, CPU 50 will check the firmware that was just flashed to ensure there were no errors associated with the flashed firmware and report the status of the final check, in step 2913. It is to be appreciated that the check of the flash performed in step 2913 is the process shown in FIG. 23B.

In step 2916, CPU 50 will determine if there were any errors with the check performed on the flashed firmware in step 2913. If CPU determines that no errors occurred with the check, in step 2916, the process will return to the process of FIG. 24 as indicated by “ret.” Alternatively, if, in step 2916, CPU 50 determines that an error occurred with the check performed in step 2916, (for example, flashing didn't get correctly into the flash, e.g., because of an EFT or some other error), then CPU 50 will retry steps 2910, 2913, and 2916 up to 3 times before returning to the process of FIG. 24.

If CPU 50 determines that the command is a command other than “Flash Firmware Slot X,” in step 2905, CPU 50 will determine if the command is “Something Wrong!” or “Reboot”, in step 2911. It is to be appreciated that the “Something Wrong” command may mean an unknown command was received by CPU 50, or maybe the message was broken and the command is invalid. In either case, CPU 50 will reboot the IED, in step 2912. However, if CPU 50 determines that the command is a “Reboot” command, CPU 50 will execute the “Reboot” command by rebooting the IED and displaying “Rebooting” on a display of the IED (e.g., via multimedia interface 22). If CPU 50 determines that the command is “Something's Wrong”, CPU 50 will reboot the IED as a response to a bad command sequence without displaying “Rebooting” on the IED.

Referring to FIG. 31, an exemplary method of initializing the communication ports, i.e., communication ports in an IED, such as IED 10, is shown in accordance with the present disclosure. At step 3000, an Infra-Red communication port (i.e., a hardware resource) of IED 10 is initialized by CPU 10 with default settings. At step 3001, the RS485 communication port (i.e., a hardware resource) of IED 10 is initialized by CPU 50 with default settings.

At step 3002, CPU 50 will determine if the signal-sense “Option Ready #0” is high or low. If CPU 50 determines that the signal-sense “Option Ready #0” is high, in step 3002, the method continues to step 3003, as will be described in greater detail below. If CPU 50 determines that the signal-sense “Option Ready #0” is low, in step 3002, CPU 50 will read the eeprom contents from the option board #0 (first option board), in step 3004. Then, CPU 50 will determine if the parameters of eeprom are ok or bad, in step 3005. If CPU 50 determines that the parameters of eeprom are bad, in step 3005, the method continues to step 3003, as will be described in greater detail below. If CPU 50 determines that the parameters of eeprom are ok, in step 3005, CPU 50 will initialize the hardware resource in option board #0 with the eeprom setting read from the first option board, in step 3006 and method continues to step 3003.

At step 3003, CPU 50 determines if the signal-sense “Option Ready #1” is low or onboard. If CPU 50 determines that the signal-sense “Option Ready #1” is onboard, in step 3003, the process returns to the process of FIG. 24, as indicated by “ret.” If CPU 50 determines that the signal-sense “Option Ready #1” is low, in step 3003, CPU 50 will read the eeprom contents from the option board#1 (i.e., second option board), in step 3007. At step 3008, CPU 50 determines the eeprom if the eeprom parameters are bad or ok. If CPU 50 determines the eeprom parameters are bad, in step 3008, the process returns to the process of FIG. 24, as indicated by “ret.” If CPU 50 determines the eeprom parameters are ok, in step 3008, CPU 50 will initialize the hardware resource in option board #1 with the eeprom settings read from the second option board, in step 3009 and the process returns to the process of FIG. 24, as indicated by “ret.”

It is to be appreciated that for steps 3000, 3001, 3006, 3009, CPU 50 is configured such that, when returning from Run, only one communication port is initialized. The initialized port is selected by the run firmware. For example, when the run firmware calls back the boot firmware (e.g., transfers control of the IED to the boot firmware), the run firmware is configured to choose a communication port of the IED that the boot firmware should use for further communication after control is passed to the boot firmware. In other words, the run firmware tells the boot firmware to “only” conduct communications with a specific communication port of the IED. The specified or chosen port is passed by the run firmware to the boot firmware as a parameter in the Transfer Block. Furthermore, as for step 3007, communication capable option boards are initialized by CPU 50 using default settings. These default settings, are read from the option board eeprom.

Referring to FIG. 32, an exemplary method of initializing interrupt service routine (ISR) in an IED, such as IED 10, is shown in accordance with the present disclosure. At step 3010, the internal input/output ports of IED 10 are setup for display and LEDs (i.e., setup hardware resources) by CPU 50. At step 3011, CPU 50 sets up the hardware timer for interrupting periodically. In step 3012, CPU 50 initializes the variables to be used only in the interrupt service routine (ISR) and the process returns to the process of FIG. 24 as indicated by “ret.”

It is to be appreciated that the methods of FIGS. 21-32 described above can also be implemented in other IEDs. For example, referring to FIG. 33, a block diagram of an IED 1010 is shown in accordance with the present disclosure.

IED 3310 includes a network communication network card 3333 for responding to user data and information requests regarding power usage and power quality for any metered point within a power distribution system 11. Also, the network card 33 may be configured for communication with one or more remote servers including firmware that can be downloaded by IED 3310. Furthermore, the communication card 3333 is configured for sending/receiving alarm and/or notification messages.

The measuring unit 3310 includes at least one sensor & analog front end 3320, at least one analog processing and analog-to-digital (A/D) converter 3322, at least one non-volatile log memory 3324, at least one volatile work memory 3326, a power supply 3328, display and user buttons interface 3330, and a central processing unit (CPU) 3332. The CPU 3332 may be a processor, the functions of which may be provided by a single dedicated processor, by a single shared processor, or by a plurality of individual processors, some of which may be shared. Moreover, explicit use of the term “processor” or “controller” should not be construed to refer exclusively to hardware capable of executing software, and may implicitly include, without limitation, digital signal processor (DSP) hardware, read only memory (ROM) for storing software, random access memory (RAM), and nonvolatile storage.

It is to be appreciated that CPU 3332 also includes a boot flash 3351 and a run flash 3353, where boot flash 3351 includes the boot firmware for IED 3310 and run flash 3353 includes the run firmware for IED 3353. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, CPU 3332 is configured to perform the same tasks as CPU 50 described above, where boot flash 3351 is configured to perform the same tasks as boot flash 51 and run flash 3353 is configured to perform the same tasks as run flash 53.

In one embodiment, IED 3310 may also include a watchdog 3317. In one embodiment, watchdog 3317 is configured to perform that same tasks as watchdog 17 described above. Watchdog 3317 may be coupled to, and in communication with, each of the components of IED 3310.

The network communication card 3333 may be coupled to or disposed into the measuring unit 3310 to extend communication capabilities of the measuring unit 3310. These capabilities include: a Web Server that allows any Internet browser to connect to the measuring unit 3310, a Modbus Server that allows a Modbus RTU client to connect to the measuring unit 3310 for transferring data (such as firmware updates and/or previous versions of firmware, as described above) and operation parameters; and other services. In one embodiment, the network communication card 3333 implements an email and/or SMS alarm/notification feature to send emails or SMS messages to a computing device (e.g., user's computer, laptop, tablet, and/or mobile device) when selected events occur. When an event is retrieved or identified by the network communication card 3333, the event is classified according with user settings (as an Alarm or Notification), and an email and/or SMS message body is created and placed into a buffer for later processing. If the event is an Alarm, the email and/or SMS message is sent as soon as possible, for example, within a 1-minute window. If the event is a Notification, the email is sent within a user-programmed window, for example, which can range from about 5 minutes to about 24 hours. In one embodiment, the event may be reporting the status of firmware flashed to the IED (e.g., the status determined in step 2316 described above). In this embodiment, CPU 3332 is configured to generate an email and/or SMS message including the status of a firmware and any other relevant information about the firmware (e.g., whether the firmware has been updated, found to have an error or be corrupt, the version of the firmware, the date the firmware has been implemented, etc.) and send the email and/or or SMS message to a user's remote computer or mobile device via communication card 3333.

The network communication card 3333 is shown to include, in one embodiment, a serial communication interface 3334 to communicate with the measuring unit 3310 unit, a CPU 3336, non-volatile memory 3338, volatile memory 3340, an Ethernet physical interface 3342 and a power supply 3344. The Ethernet physical interface 3342 couples the measuring unit 3310 to at least one network, e.g., the Internet, via an Ethernet link 1283. Also, power supply 3344 in the network card, for example, is a block that represents the conversion of the host provided voltage (5 VDC) from power supply 3328 into a voltage suited for the network card components, and electric isolation between both power rails.

As stated above, and IED, such as IED 10 or IED 3310, may be configured to store one or more versions of a firmware (e.g., a currently used version, previous versions, and an original version) in a memory of the IED, such as memories 20 or 3324. A CPU of the IED, such as CPU 50 or 3332, may be configured to revert to previous version of the firmware if an error or failure is found with a current version of the firmware. In one embodiment, CPU 50, 3332 is configured to downgrade a version of the firmware manually, even if an error or failure is not detected. In this embodiment, each version of the firmware may include different features. For example, earlier versions of the firmware may only include basic features, while later versions of the firmware may include additional features. A customer may only be allowed (by CPU 50 or 3332) to upgrade to newer versions of the firmware upon paying a fee (e.g., one time or monthly as a subscription service). If a customer later decides that paying a fee is undesirable and/or the customer does not need the additional features, CPU 50, 3332 is configured to be able to revert back to previous versions of the firmware that only include the basic features. It is to be appreciated that CPU 50, 3332 may be configured to revert back to previous versions of firmware or upgrade to newer versions of firmware in response to a request received from a remote computer (e.g., a commercial facility of the manufacturer or distributor of the IED).

It is to be appreciated that the term “firmware” described above may be a software to be permanently installed onto an IED, such as IED 10 or IED 3310. This software defines the functional behavior, processing capabilities and expected features of the IED

Further features and implementations of the enterprise-wide energy management reporting, analysis and billing system of the present disclosure may become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from an understanding of the description provided herein. It is to be appreciated that the various features shown and described are interchangeable, that is a feature shown in one embodiment may be incorporated into another embodiment.

While non-limiting embodiments are disclosed herein, many variations are possible which remain within the concept and scope of the present disclosure. Such variations would become clear to one of ordinary skill in the art after inspection of the specification, drawings and claims herein. The present disclosure therefore is not to be restricted except within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

Furthermore, although the foregoing text sets forth a detailed description of numerous embodiments, it should be understood that the legal scope of the present disclosure is defined by the words of the claims set forth at the end of this patent. The detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment, as describing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. One could implement numerous alternate embodiments, using either current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims.

It should also be understood that, unless a term is expressly defined in this patent using the sentence “As used herein, the term ‘_’ is hereby defined to mean . . . ” or a similar sentence, there is no intent to limit the meaning of that term, either expressly or by implication, beyond its plain or ordinary meaning, and such term should not be interpreted to be limited in scope based on any statement made in any section of this patent (other than the language of the claims). To the extent that any term recited in the claims at the end of this patent is referred to in this patent in a manner consistent with a single meaning, that is done for sake of clarity only so as to not confuse the reader, and it is not intended that such claim term be limited, by implication or otherwise, to that single meaning. Finally, unless a claim element is defined by reciting the word “means” and a function without the recital of any structure, it is not intended that the scope of any claim element be interpreted based on the application of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph. 

What is claimed is:
 1. An intelligent electronic device (IED) comprising: at least one sensor coupled to an electrical distribution system, the at least one sensor configured to measure at least one parameter of the electrical distribution system and generate at least one analog signal indicative of the at least one parameter; at least one analog-to-digital converter configured to receive the at least one analog signal and convert the at least one analog signal to at least one digital signal; at least one memory configured to store at least a first firmware and a second firmware, the second firmware being a version of the first firmware; and at least one processor configured to receive the at least one digital signal and calculate at least one power parameter of the electrical distribution system, the at least one processor further configured to determine if there is an error associated with the first firmware, wherein if the at least one processor determines there is no error associated with the first firmware, the at least one processor is configured to execute the first firmware and if the at least one processor determines there is an error with the first firmware, the at least one processor is configured to execute the second firmware.
 2. The IED of claim 1, wherein if the at least one processor determines that there is an error with the at least a first firmware, the at least one processor generates an error message.
 3. The IED of claim 2, further comprising a display, wherein the at least one processor is configured to output the error message to the display.
 4. The IED of claim 2, further comprising a communication interface configured to communicate with at least one other device, wherein the at least one processor is configured to provide the error message to the at least one other device via the communication interface.
 5. The IED of claim 4, wherein the error message is at least one of an email and a short messaging service text message.
 6. The IED of claim 1, wherein the second firmware is a previous version of the first firmware.
 7. The IED of claim 1, wherein the second firmware the same version as the first firmware.
 8. The IED of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine if there is an error associated with the first firmware by performing a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) on the first firmware to obtain a first CRC value and comparing the first value with a saved CRC value stored in the at least one memory, wherein if the first CRC value matches the saved CRC value, the at least one processor is configured to determine that there is no error associated with the first firmware and if the first CRC value does not match the saved CRC value, the at least one processor is configured to determine that there is an error associated with the first firmware.
 9. The IED of claim 1, wherein, if there is an error associated with the first firmware, the at least one processor is further configured to determine if there is an error associated with the second firmware and to execute the second firmware if there is no error associated with the second firmware.
 10. The IED of claim 9, further comprising a communication interface configured to communicate with at least one remote computing device, wherein if the at least one processor determines there is an error associated with the second firmware, the at least one processor is configured to send a request to the at least one remote computing device via the communication interface to download a desired version of the first firmware from the at least one remote computing device.
 11. The IED of claim 10, wherein the communication interface is configured to receive a communication from the at least one remote computing device including the desired version of the first firmware requested by the at least one processor and the at least one processor is configured to execute the version of the first firmware received in the communication.
 12. The IED of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine if there is an error associated with the first firmware during a boot up mode of the IED.
 13. The IED of claim 1, wherein if the at least one processor determines the error associated with the first firmware is a temporary error, the at least one processor is configured to reboot the IED.
 14. The IED of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor further includes a flash memory and the at least one processor is configured to flash the second firmware to the flash memory if the at least one processor determines there is an error associated with the first firmware.
 15. An intelligent electronic device (IED) comprising: at least one sensor coupled to an electrical distribution system, the at least one sensor configured to measure at least one parameter of the electrical distribution system and generate at least one analog signal indicative of the at least one parameter; at least one analog-to-digital converter configured to receive the at least one analog signal and convert the at least one analog signal to at least one digital signal; at least one memory configured to store at least a first firmware; at least one communication interface configured to communicate with at least one remote computing device, the at least one communication interface receiving a communication from the at least one remote computing device including at least a second firmware, wherein the second firmware is a version of the first firmware and the second firmware is saved in the at least one memory; and at least one processor configured to receive the at least one digital signal and calculate at least one power parameter of the electrical distribution system, the at least one processor further configured to determine if there is an error associated with the first firmware, wherein if the at least one processor determines there is no error associated with the first firmware, the at least one processor is configured to execute the first firmware and if the at least one processor determines there is an error associated with the first firmware, the at least one processor is configured to execute the second firmware.
 16. The IED of claim 15, wherein the communication from the remote computing device is received in response to a request from the at least one processor for the second firmware.
 17. The IED of claim 15, wherein the at least one communication from the remote computing device is received by the at least one processor without a request from the at least one processor requesting the second firmware.
 18. The IED of claim 15, wherein the at least one communication interface is configured to communicate with the at least one remote computing device using serial communication.
 19. The IED of claim 15, wherein the at least one communication interface is configured to communicate with the at least one remote computing device wirelessly.
 20. The IED of claim 15, wherein the at least one communication is encrypted and the at least one processor is configured to decrypt the at least one communication.
 21. The IED of claim 15, wherein the at least one communication further includes a digital signature and the at least one processor is configured to decrypt the digital signature to obtain a first value, execute a hash function on the second firmware to obtain a second value, and compare the first value and the second value to determine the authenticity of the second firmware.
 22. An intelligent electronic device (IED) comprising: at least one sensor coupled to an electrical distribution system, the at least one sensor configured to measure at least one parameter of the electrical distribution system and generate at least one analog signal indicative of the at least one parameter; at least one analog-to-digital converter configured to receive the at least one analog signal and convert the at least one analog signal to at least one digital signal; at least one memory configured to store at least a first version and a second version of a firmware, the first version of the firmware including at least one different feature than the features included in the second version of the firmware; at least one communication interface configured to communicate with at least one remote computing device, the at least one communication interface receiving a communication from the remote computing device including a command to downgrade from the first version of the firmware to the second version of the firmware; and at least one processor configured to receive the at least one digital signal and calculate at least one power parameter of the electrical distribution system, the at least one processor further configured to receive the communication and downgrade from the first version of the firmware to the second version of the firmware in response to the command. 